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THEODORET OF CYRUS
LETTERS 124-181.
[Translated by the Rev. Blomfield Jackson, M.A., Vicar of St.
Bartholomew's, Moor Lane, and Fellow of King's College, London.]
CXXIV. To the learned Maranas.(1)
I too am distressed at the calamities of the Church, and wail over the
storm that is raging; for myself I am glad to be quit of agitation, and to
be enjoying a calm which is delightful to me. As to the men whom your
learning states to be still carrying on their iniquities, the day is not
far distant when they will pay the penalty of their present rash
lawlessness. All things are governed by the Lord of all with weight and
rule, and whenever any fall away into unbounded iniquity His long suffering
comes to an end, and He then acts as Judge and appoints punishment.
Foreseeing this I pray that they may cease from their license that I may
not be compelled to weep once more for them as I behold them undergoing
chastisement.
Your excellency I can never forget, and I beg our common Master to fill
your house with blessing.
CXXV. To Aphthonius, Theodoritus, Nonnus, Scylacius, Apthonius, Joannes,
Magistrates of the Zeugmatensis.
I know the strength and stability of your faith, and have been filled
with the greatest possible delight, for, since we worshippers of the
eternal Trinity constitute one body, it is only natural that together with
the members that are sound the rest of the members should rejoice. So says
the divine Apostle; "Whether one member be honoured all the members rejoice
with it."(2) I therefore rejoice with you in your struggles on behalf of
the apostolic doctrines and your following of the famous Naboth in more
excellent things. Naboth for his vineyard's sake suffered most unrighteous
slaughter, because he would not give up the heritage of his fathers. You
are fighting not for vineyards, but for divine doctrines, and reject this
new-fangled and spurious heresy as blackening the brightness of the
teaching of the gospel; you do not suffer the number of the blessed Trinity
to be diminished or increased. For it is diminished by those who ascribe
the passion of the only begotten to the Godhead; it is increased by those
who have the audacity to introduce a second son. You believe in one only
begotten, as you do in one Father and in one Holy Ghost. In the only
begotten made flesh you behold the assumed nature which He took from us and
offered on our behalf. The denial of this nature puts our salvation far
from us; for if the Godhead of the only begotten is impassible, as the
nature of the Trinity is impassible, and we refuse to acknowledge that
which is by nature adapted to suffer, then the preaching of a passion which
never happened is idle and vain. For if that which suffers has no existence
how could there be a passion? We declare that the divine nature is
impassible;--a doctrine confessed by our opponents as well as by ourselves.
How then could there be a passion when there is no subject capable of
suffering? The great mystery of the oeconomy will appear an appearance, a
mere seeming instead of the reality. This is the fable started by
Valentinus, Bardesanes, Marcion and Manes. But the teaching handed down to
the churches from the beginning recognises, even after the incarnation, one
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and confesses the same to be everlasting God,
and man made at the end of days; made man not by the mutation of the
Godhead but by the assumption of the manhood. For suppose the divine nature
to have undergone mutation into the human nature, then it did not remain
what it was; and if it is not what it was, they who have these objects of
worship are false in calling Him God. We, on the contrary, recognise the
only begotten Son of God to be immutable as God, and Son of the very God.
For we have learnt from the divine Scripture that being in the form of God
He took the form of the servant;(1) and took on Him the seed of Abraham,
not was changed into Abraham's seed; and shared just as we do both in flesh
and blood and in a soul immortal and immaculate. Preserving these for our
sinful bodies He offered His sinless body and for our souls His soul free
from all stain. It is for this reason that we have the hope of the common
resurrection for the race will assuredly share with its first fruits, and
as we have shared with Adam in his death, so too with Christ our Saviour
shall we be sharers in His life. This the divine Apostle has plainly taught
us, for "now" he says "is Christ risen from the dead and become the first
fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also
the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive."(1)
I write thus not to inform you but to remind you. I have tried to be
brief, but I fear I have transgressed the limits of a letter. I was however
urged to write by the very reverend and godly presbyter and archimandrite
Mecimas, who, in obedience to the law of love, has undertaken so long a
journey, told us of your excellency's zeal, and begged us to inflame it by
a letter. I have therefore granted his supplication, and written my letter,
and I implore the Lord of all to keep you safe in the faith and make
stronger than him who sifts us.(2)
CXXVI. To the Bishop Sabinianus.(3)
I praised your holiness on your quitting the envied see. Once it was
venerable; now it is ridiculous, for we have made it a thing to be bought
and sold. I was astounded to hear of your having appealed to the men who
ejected you. You ought to have done just the contrary, and, on being
invited to grasp the tiller, to have declined to do so, on the ground that
your shipmates had become your foes. Are you not aware, most godly sir,
what our Saviour, through His sacred apostles, taught us to preach? Do you
not know what the heirs of the apostolic doctrines have just now laid down
as objects of worship? For who of the old teachers from the time when the
message was first preached down to the period of the darkness that now
obtains, ever listened to any one preaching one nature of flesh and Godhead
or dared at any time to call the nature of the only begotten passible?
These doctrines in our day are by some men openly and boldly uttered, while
among others their utterance is overlooked, and by silence men become
participators in the blasphemy. What then, may well be asked, is the proper
course to be taken by, those who abominate such doctrines? They have, I
should reply, two alternatives before them; they may either come to close
quarters, and prove the spuriousness of the doctrines, or they may decline
communion with their opponents as openly impious.
I, indeed, have received the wrong done me as a divine blessing. I do
not mean that I have thanked them that have wronged me; how could I thank
fratricides, and men who have become followers of Cain?
But I praise my Master for thinking me worthy of the lot of them that
suffer wrong, for separating me from wrong-doers and blasphemers, and for
giving me my most delightful rest.
CXXVII. To Jobius, presbyter and archimandrite.(1)
The patriarch Abraham won a victory in his old age.(2) The great Moses
was now an old man when, so long as he stretched out his hands in prayer,
he vanquished Amalek.(3) The divine Samuel(4) was an old man when he put
the aliens to flight. These are emulated by your venerable old age. In our
wars for true religion's sake you are playing the man, and championing the
cause of the gospel doctrines, and putting young men in the shade by the
vigour of your spirit.
I rejoice to hear it, and am glad, and long to embrace your right
venerable gray hairs. This I cannot do, for your reverence is kept at home
by your years, and I am kept in durance here by the imperial decree. But I
cheat my love by this letter, and give your piety this most loving embrace.
I call upon you in your prayers to help the churches now whelmed in the
storm, and to win for me the divine support, assailed as I am for the sake
of the doctrines of the gospel, and standing sorely in need of help from
above.
CXXVIII. To Candidus, presbyter and archimandrite.(5)
I am afraid that the vigour of your godly soul has been overcome by old
age, and that you do not keep your hands stretched out as usual. So Amalek
is trying to win. May there be some to succour your weakness, as once of
old Ur and Aaron supported the hands of the law-giver, that you may
overthrow Amalek and save Israel. These are days when we specially need
more earnest prayers, when Gentiles and Jews and every heresy are at peace,
and the Church alone is beaten by the storm and surrounded by the
boisterous billows.
We indeed specially need the aid of your prayers, for those whom we
reckoned to be fighting on our side are fighting on that of our foes.
CXXIX. To Magnus Antoninus the presbyter.(1)
Sailors at night are cheered by the sight of the harbour lights, and so
are they who are in peril for the sake of the apostolic faith by the zeal
of them that share the faith. We have great comfort in what we hear of your
godliness's efforts on behalf of the divine doctrines, for this mind has
been given you by the Giver of all good gifts and for the safe keeping of
these doctrines you undergo every toil. Now I, comforted by your zeal, make
an insignificant return, calling on you to persevere in your divine
labours, to despise your adversaries as an easy prey, (for what is weaker
than they who are destitute of the truth?) and to trust in Him who said "I
will not fail thee nor forsake thee,"(2) and "Lo I am with you alway even
unto the end of the world. Help me too with your prayers that I may
confidently say "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do
unto me?"(4)
CXXX. To Bishop Timotheus.(5)
Not without purpose does the supreme Ruler allow the spirits that are
against us to agitate the waves of impiety. He does so that He may try the
courage of the sailors, and, while He exhibits some men's manliness,
convicts others of cowardice, stripping the mask from the faces of some who
put on an appearance of piety, and proclaiming others as foremost fighters
in the ranks of the truth. We have seen an instance of this in the present
time. The storm rose high; some shewed their secret impiety; some abandoned
the truth which they were holding, went over to the phalanx of our foes,
and now, with them, are smiting the very men whom they used to call their
chiefs. The witnesses of these things detest the enemy and pity the
deserters, but are afraid to give aid to the victims of the attack upon the
apostolic doctrines. Nay, suppose the traitors to urge them with greater
insistency, they will perhaps themselves pass over to the side of the
assailants, will give no quarter to their fellow-believers, but will drive
against them their barbs side by side with the very men whom they accuse.
They will act thus though they have been taught by the divine Scripture
that a wrong done to one's neighbour incurs punishment, while the suffering
of injustice entails great and lasting rewards.
Your own piety, your zeal for the faith, and your good will to myself,
have been proved by this agitation. Twice you have written me a letter in
contempt of all that might deter you, and have thus shewn your brotherly
affection. You have also indicated the conflict you are sustaining on
behalf of the apostolic doctrines. You ask me to tell you by letter what we
ought to think and preach concerning the passion of salvation. I have
received your request with delight, and, not indeed to give you information
but only to remind one who is beloved of God, will proceed to tell you what
I have learnt from the divine Scripture and from the Fathers who have
interpreted it.
Know then, most godly sir, that before all things it is necessary to
observe the distinction of terms, and, in addition to this, the cause of
the divine incarnation. Once let these be made clear, and there will be no
ambiguity left about the passion. We will therefore first, to those who
endeavour to contradict us, put this enquiry. Which of the names given to
the only begotten Son of God are anterior to the incarnation, and which
posterior, or rather, connected with the operation of the economy? They
will reply that the terms anterior are, "God the Word," "only begotten
Son," "Almighty," and "Lord of all creation"; and that the names "Jesus
Christ" belong to the incarnation. For, after the incarnation, God the
Word, the only begotten Son of God is called Jesus Christ; for "Behold" He
says "unto you is born this day Christ the Lord"(1) and because others had
been called christs, priests, kings, and prophets, lest any one should
suppose Him to be like unto them, the angels conjoined the title Lord with
that of Christ, in order to prove the supreme dignity of Him that was born.
And, again, Gabriel says to the blessed Virgin, "Behold thou shall conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son and shalt call His name Jesus"(1) "for
He shall save His people from their sins."(2) Before the incarnation,
however, He was never called either Christ or Jesus. For truly the divine
Prophets, in their predictions of things to come, used the words, just as
they prophesied about the birth, the cross, and the passion, when the
events had not yet come to pass. Nevertheless, even after the incarnation
He is called God the Word, Lord, Almighty, only begotten Son, Maker, and
Creator. For He was not made man by mutation, but, remaining just what He
was, assumed what we are, for "Being in the form of God," to use the words
of the divine Apostle "He took the form of a servant."(3) On this account,
therefore, even after the incarnation, He is called also by the titles
which are anterior to the incarnation, since His nature is invariable and
immutable. But when relating the passion the divine Scripture nowhere uses
the term God, since that is the name of the absolute nature. No one on
bearing the words "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God"(4) and similar expressions, would suppose that the
flesh existed before the ages, or is of one substance with the God of the
universe, or was Creator of the world. Every one knows that these terms are
proper to the Godhead. Nor would any one on reading the genealogy of St.
Matthew suppose that David and Abraham according to nature were forefathers
of God, for it is the assumed nature which is derived from them.
Since then these points are plain and indubitable even among extreme
heretics, and we acknowledge both the nature which is before the ages, and
that which is of recent time, so are we bound to recognise at once the
passibility of the flesh, and the impassibility of the Godhead, not
dividing the union nor separating the only begotten into two persons, but
contemplating the properties of the natures in the one Son. In the case of
soul and body, which are of natures contemporary and naturally united, we
are accustomed to make this distinction, describing the soul as simple,
reasonable, and immortal, but the body as complex, passible, and mortal. We
do not divide the union, nor cut one man in two. Far rather, then, in the
case of the Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, and of the
manhood assumed of David's seed, is it becoming to adopt a similar course,
and distinctly to recognise the everlasting, eternal, simple,
uncircumscribed, immortal, and invariable character of the one nature, and
the recent, complex, circumscribed, and fluctuating nature of the other. We
acknowledge the flesh to be now immortal and incorruptible, although before
the resurrection it was susceptible of death and of passion; for how
otherwise was it nailed to the tree, and committed to the tomb? And though
we recognise the distinction of the natures, we are bound to worship one
Son, and to acknowledge the same as Son of God and Son of man, form of God,
and form of a servant, Son of David, and Lord of David, seed of Abraham,
and creator of Abraham. The union causes the names to be common, but the
community of names does not confound the natures. With them that are right-
minded some names are plainly appropriate as to God, and others as to man;
and in this way both the passible and the impassible are properly used of
the Lord Christ, for in His humanity He suffered, while as God He remained
impassible. If, according to the argument of the impious, it was in the
Godhead that He suffered, then, I apprehend, the assumption of the flesh,
was supererogatory; for suppose the divine nature to have been capable of
undergoing passion, then He did not need the passible manhood. But grant
that, as even their own argument contends, the Godhead was impassible, and
the passion was real, let them beware of denying that which suffered, lest
they deny with it the reality of the passion; for if that which suffers
does not exist, then the passion is unreal. Now for any one who likes to
open the quaternion(1) of the sacred evangelists, it is easy to perceive
that the divine Scripture distinctly proclaims the passion of the body, and
to learn from them how Joseph of Arimathaea came to Pilate, and begged the
body of Jesus; how Pilate ordered the body of Jesus to be delivered, how
Joseph took down the body of Jesus from the tree and wrapped the body of
Jesus in the linen cloth, and laid it in the new tomb. All this is
described by the four evangelists with frequent mention of the body. But if
our opponents adduce the words of the angel to Mary and her companions,
"Come where the Lord lay,"(1) let them be referred to the passage in the
Acts which states that devout men "carried Stephen to his burial"(2) and
observe that it was not the soul, but the body, of the victorious Stephen,
to which the customary rites were paid. And to this very day, when we
approach the shrines of the victorious martyrs, we commonly enquire what is
the name of him who is buried in the grave, and those who are acquainted
with the facts reply peradventure "Julian the martyr," or "Romanus," or,
"Timotheus."(3)
Very often it is not entire bodies that are buried, but only very small
remains, yet nevertheless we speak of the body by the name that belongs to
the whole man. It was in this sense that the angel called the body of the
Lord, "Lord," because it was the body of the Lord of the universe. Moreover
the Lord Himself promised to give on behalf of the life of the world, not
His invisible nature, but His body. "For," He says, "the bread that I will
give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world,"(4) and when
He took the symbol of divine mysteries, He said, "This is my body which is
given for you."(5) Or according to the version of the Apostle, "broken."(6)
In no place where He spoke of the passion did He mention the impossible
Godhead.
It is therefore before all things necessary that the question should be
put to those who are endeavouring to contradict us whether they confess
that the perfect manhood was assumed by God the Word, and assert the union
to have been made without confusion. Once let these points be admitted, and
the rest will follow in due course, and the passion will be attributed to
the passible nature. I have now summed up these heads and have exceeded the
limits of my letter. I have sent also what I lately wrote at the suggestion
of a very godly and holy man of God, the lord(7) in the form of a concise
instruction designed to teach the truth of the apostolic doctrines. Should
I find a good copyist, I will also send your holiness what I have written
in the form of a dialogue,(8) extending the argument, and strengthening my
positions, by the teaching of the Fathers. I have moreover now sent a few
statements of the ancient teachers, sufficient to shew the drift of their
instruction. Give me in return, most godly sir, the succour of your
prayers, that I may pass through the terrible tempest and reach the quiet
haven of the Saviour.
CXXXI. To Longinus, Archimandrite of Doliche.(1)
You have shewn alike your zeal for the true religion, and your love for
your neighbour, both of which are at the present time clearly connected,
for it is for the sake of the apostolic decrees that I am being attacked,
because I refuse to give up the heritage of my fathers, and prefer to
undergo any suffering to looking lightly on the robbery of one tittle from
the faith of the Gospel. You have accepted fellowship in my sufferings, not
only by comforting me by means of your letter, but further by sending to me
the very honourable and pious Matthew and Isaac. You shall hear, I am well
assured. from the lips of the righteous Lord, "I was in prison, and ye
visited me."(2) We are small and of no account, and burdened by a great
load of sins, but the Lord is bountiful and generous. He remembers the
small rather than the great, and says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these"(3) "which believe in me"(4) "ye have done it
unto me."(5) I pray you in that yon are conspicuous for right doctrine, and
shine by worthiness of life, and therefore have great boldness before God,
help me in your prayers, that I may be able "to stand," to use the words of
the Apostle,(6) "against the wiles of error," escape the sins of the
destroyer, and stand, though with little boldness, in the day of the
appearing before the righteous Judge.
CXXXII. To Ibas, bishop of Edessa.(7)
The Lord has taught them that suffer wrong not to be east down, but to
rejoice, and to derive consolation from the examples of old. For from the
period of the first men down to our own days we find instances of men who
have been zealous in the worship of the God of all, and vet have been
wronged by those with whom their lot was cast, and have fallen into many
and grievous troubles. Of these I would have gone through the entire list,
had I not been writing to one of accurate knowledge of the divine
Scriptures. But since you, O beloved of God, have been nurtured from your
boyhood in the divine oracles, I have thought it needless so to do. I only
ask you to cast your eyes on them, and to look on all the kind-hearted
clergy that have done wrong, with sorrow; on all that look lightly on wrong
doing, with pity; and to be sorrowful for the disquiet of the Church. I ask
you to rejoice and be glad that I am a sharer in suffering for the sake of
true religion, and to praise without ceasing Him who has imposed this lot
on me. As for honour and comfort and the dignity of sees and wretched
reputation, let us yield them to the murderers.(1)
Let us cleave only to the doctrines of the gospel, and with them, if
need be, endure any extremity of pain, and choose honourable penury rather
than wealth with its many cares.
I am not writing ill these terms in order to give you exhortation, for
I know the courage of your holiness in trouble. My object is to make my own
mind known to your piety, and to inform you that you have on your side
comrades who are gladly incurring peril for the truth's sake. I have been
anxious for some time to write thus to you, but I have been unable to find
anyone to convey my letter. Now I have met with the very honourable and
pious presbyter Ozeas, a man who is at once engaged in the battle for truth
and attached to your piety. So I write and salute your holiness, and beg
you to give me both the prop of your prayers and the comfort of a letter
from you.
CXXXIII. To John, bishop of Germanicia.(2)
I have always known, sir, that you are not unmindful of our
friendship. And it has ever been my wish and prayer that your piety should
give heed to exact truth, and shun the communion of traitors to true
religion, ascribing to the Supreme Ruler His care on our behalf. For
indeed, while I have been silent and inactive, He has put an end to our
very keen and terrible sufferings, and has replaced the dire tempest by
this bright calm. And now that the loving-kindness of the Lord has granted
us this blessing, I find the quiet of my retreat indeed delightful, for I
feel the necessity of persuading those who have been led away by the
slanders launched against me, and of both convincing them of the truth of
the teaching of the gospels, and refuting the attack of falsehood. When
once this refutation is finished, and the victory of the truth is secured,
it is my purpose to quit public life, and withdraw to the rest that I so
greatly long for. As to the foes of the truth I cry with the prophet,
"Their memorial is perished with a noise, but the Lord shall endure for
ever."(1) As to ourselves, I sing with the Psalmist, "He sent from above,
He took me, He drew me out of many waters, He delivered me from my strong
enemy."(2)
This letter is in reply to two received from your holiness, one
conveyed by Anastasius, the presbyter of Beroea, and one by the standard-
bearer Theodotus. In your last letter you mention another, but this has not
been delivered. As to my journey thither I can say nothing till I know what
orders are given concerning me by the most pious emperor. His letter has
not yet arrived.
CXXXIV. To Theoctistus, Bishop of Beroea.(3)
Our Saviour, Lawgiver, and Lord, was once asked, "What is the first
commandment?" His reply was "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." And He added "This is
the first commandment: and the second is like unto it, Thou shall love the
neighbour as thyself." Then He said further "On these two commandments bang
all the law and the prophets."(4)
He then who keeps these, according to the definition of the Lord,
plainly fulfils the Law; and he who transgresses them is guilty of
transgressing the whole Law. Let us then examine, before the exact and
righteous tribunal of our conscience, whether we have fulfilled the divine
commandments. Now the first is kept by him who guards the faith given by
God in its integrity, who abominates its assailants as enemies of the truth
and hates heartily all those who hate the beloved; and the second by him
who most highly esteems the care of his neighbour and who, not only in
prosperity but also in apparent misfortunes, observes the laws of
friendship. They, on the other hand, who look after their own safety, as
they suppose, who on its account make little of the laws of friendship and
take no heed of their friends when assaulted and attacked, are reckoned to
belong to the number of the wicked and of them that are without. The Lord
of all requires better things at the hands of His disciples. "Love" He says
"your enemies, for if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? for
the sinners and the publicans do this."(1) I, however, have not received
even such kindness as publicans receive. Publicans, do I say? I have not
even received the consolation given to murderers and wizards in their
dungeons. If every one had imitated this cruelty, nothing else would have
been left then for me in my life time but to be wasted by want, and, at my
death, instead of being committed to a tomb, to be made meat(2) for dogs
and wild beasts. But I have found support in those who care nought for this
present life, but await the enjoyment of everlasting blessings, and these
furnish me with manifold consolation. But the loving Lord "caused judgment
to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still, when God arose to
judgment."(3) But the wicked shall perish.(4) The falsehood of the new
heresy has been proscribed, and the truth of the divine Gospels is publicly
proclaimed. I for my part exclaim with the blessed David, "Blessed be the
Lord God whet only doeth wondrous things, and blessed be His glorious name:
and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; amen and amen."(5)
CXXXV. To Bishop Romulus.(6)
You have reminded me of the ancient story, and remarked how the King of
the Syrians, bethinking him of the loving kindness of the kings of lsrael,
assumed the form of a suppliant and failed not to obtain his petition.
Remember therefore, sir, the divine wrath. God delivered Ahab to utter
destruction for using mercy, and delivered his sentence through the mouth
of the prophet, saying "Thy life shall go for his life and thy people for
his people."(1) We are thus commanded to temper mercy with justice, since
not every kind of mercy is pleasing to the God of all. The present state of
affairs specially requires prudent council; for we are contending on behalf
of the divine doctrines, wherein we have the hope of our salvation. But
herein, too, may be seen the great difference between man and man. Some men
are verily infected with the common impiety; while others, without
distinction, advance at one time one doctrine, and at another its opposite.
Some who know the truth conceal it in the secret chambers of their soul,
while they preach impiety with the rest; others again who are filled with
envy have made their private ill-will an occasion of waging war against the
truth, and wreak all kinds of mischief against the prophets of the truth.
Again, there are who embrace the truth of the apostolic doctrines, and yet
because they are afraid of the power of the dominant party are too cowed to
proclaim it, and though they lament at the abundance of our misfortunes,
nevertheless side with them that set the mighty surge a-rolling. It is in
this last category that we place your reverence. We have believed you to be
sound in the divine doctrines, and think that you keep your affection for
me, and are borne along with the time for no other reason than your
cowardice. Under these circumstances though I am not writing to any of the
rest, I write to year holiness, and receive your reply. I see your drift
and to some extent I pardon your pusillanimity. But the loving Lord has now
removed all occasions of cowardice, by exhibiting the new-fangled impiety,
and shewing the plain truth of the gospels. I, even though my mouths were
as many as my hairs, cannot praise as I ought the loving-kindness of the
Lord for compelling my strongest opponents openly to preach what has been
preached by me. For I have heard that he who shares your holiness's roof,
when he heard that anathemas had been published in the great cities, ceased
to imitate the crooked gait of crabs, and, after disputing in a certain
assembly about doctrines, walked in the straight road. Never must we suit
our words to the season, but ever preserve the unbending rule of truth.
CXXXVI. To Cyrus Magistrianus.(1)
I was very much distressed to hear of the trouble which had befallen
you. How indeed could I fail to suffer, making as I do your interest mine,
and remembering the apostolic law which bids us not only "rejoice with them
that do rejoice, but also weep with them that weep"?(2) Suffering itself is
able to draw even those that are at enmity with one another into sympathy.
What is so grievous as to lose a wife; one who bore blamelessly the
yoke of wedlock. one who made her husband's life pleasant, one who shared
the care of the family; one who managed the household and shared in the
direction of everything; one who was ready to suggest whatever might be
likely to be of service, and to comply with the wishes of her husband? But
what sorrow could surpass the committal to the tomb of the mother at the
same moment as the son whom she bore; a son who had been carefully trained
and had received a learned education; one who, you hoped, would be the stay
of your old age; buried in the very spring of his manhood, when the down
was just beginning to grow upon his cheeks? Did we only look at the
character of the calamity, it admits of no consolation. But when we bethink
us how our race is doomed to die; that against that race the divine fiat
has gone forth; that suffering is common, for life is full of such woes; we
shall bravely bear what has happened, shall repel the assaults of despair,
and shall raise that wonderful song of praise "The Lord gave and the Lord
hath taken away; the Lord hath done what seemed to him good; blessed be the
name of the Lord."(3) But we have many more reasons for consolation. We
have been distinctly taught the hopes of the resurrection, and we look for
the time when the dead shall live again. We know how the Lord many times
called death sleep. If we trust, as in truth we do, the Saviour's words we
are bound not to mourn those that have fallen asleep, even though their
sleep lasts somewhat longer than it is wont. We must await the
resurrection. We must remember that the Ruler of the world in His wisdom,
and clearly knowing as He does not the present only but the future also,
guides events for our good. A wise man who knew all this full well reasons
about deaths of this kind and says, "Yea; speedily was he taken away, lest
that wickedness should alter his understanding."(1)
Let us submit I beg you to the wise Ruler of all; let us submit to His
decrees. Whether they be pleasant or whether they be grievous, they are
good and profitable, they make men wise; for them that endure they ordain
crowns.
CXXXVII. To the Archimandrite John.(2)
The blessed David fell into several errors, which God, who wisely
orders all things, has caused to be recorded for the good of them that were
to come after. But it was not on their account that Absalom, parricide,
murderer, impious, and altogether vile, started his wild war against his
father. The reason of his beginning that most unrighteous struggle was
because he coveted the sovereignty. The divine David, however, when these
events were coming to pass, began to remember the wrong that he had done. I
too am conscious within myself of the guilt of many errors, but I have kept
undefiled the dogmatic teaching of the Apostles. And they who have trampled
upon all laws human and divine, and condemned me in my absence, have not
sentenced me for what I have done wrong, for my secret deeds are not made
manifest to them; but they have contrived false witness and calumny against
me, or rather in their open attack upon the doctrines of the Apostles have
proscribed me for my obedience to them. "So the Lord awaked as one out of
sleep; He smote His enemies in the hinderparts and put them to a perpetual
shame."(3) Counterfeit and spurious doctrines tie has scattered to the
winds, and has provided for the free preaching of those which He has handed
down to us in the holy Gospels. To me this suffices for complete delight. I
do not even long for a city in which I have passed all my time in hard
work; all I long for is to see the establishment of the truth of the
Gospels. And now the Lord has satisfied this longing. I am therefore very
glad and happy, and I sing praises to our generous Lord, and I invite your
reverence to rejoice with the, and, with our praises, to put up the earnest
prayer that the men who say now one thing and now another and change about
to suit the hour, like the chameleons who assume the colour of the leaves,
may be strengthened by the loving-kindness of the Lord, established upon
the rocks and, of His mercy, made to pay the highest honour to the truth.
CXXXVIII. To Anatolius the patrician.(1)
I have cordially welcomed the rest which has fallen to my lot, and am
harvesting its beneficial and pleasant results. Our Christ-loving
Emperor,"(2) after reaping the empire as fruit of his true piety, has
offered as first-fruits of his sovereignty to Him that bestowed it, the
calm of the storm-tossed churches, the triumph of the invaded faith, the
victory of the doctrines of the Gospel. To these he has added the righting
of the wrong done to me. Of a wrong so great and of such a kind who ever
heard? What murderer was ever doomed in his absence? What violator of
wedlock was ever condemned without a hearing? What burglar, grave-breaker.
wizard, church-robber, or doer of any other unlawful deed, was ever
prevented, when eager to appeal to the law, and slain when far away by the
sentence of his judge? In their cases nothing of the kind was ever known.
For, by our law, plaintiff and defendant are bidden to stand face to face
before the judge, while the judge has to wait for the production of plain
truth, and then and not till then, either dismiss the accused as innocent,
or punish him as being reached by the indictment. In my case the course
pursued has been just the opposite. The emperor's letter forbade me to
approach the far-famed synod, and the most righteous judges condemned me in
my absence, not after fair trial. but after extravagant laudation of the
documents which were produced to incriminate me. Neither the law of God nor
shame of man staved the deed of blood. Orders were given by the
president,(3) flinging the truth to the winds, and courting the power of
the hour. He was obeyed by men who think as I do, whose doctrines are my
doctrines, and who had expressed admiration of me and mine. None the less
did that day convict some men of treachery; some of cowardice; while to me
a ground of confidence was given by my sufferings for the truth's sake. And
to me our master Christ hath granted the boon "not only of believing on Him
but also of suffering for His sake."(1) For the greatest of all gifts of
grace are sufferings for the Master's sake, and the divine Apostle puts
them even before great marvels.
In these boons I too glory, humble and insignificant as I am, and
having no other ground of boasting. And I beseech your excellency to offer
on behalf of my poor self expressions of thanksgiving to the emperor, lover
of Christ, and to the most pious Augusta,(2) clear to God, instructress of
the good, for that she has requited our generous Lord with such gifts, and
has made her zeal for true religion the Connotation and groundwork of bet
sway. Besides this, beg their godly majesties to complete the work that has
been so well marked out, and to summon a council, not, like the last,
composed of a turbulent rabble, but--kept quite clear of all of these--of
men who decide on and highly value divine things, and esteem all human
affairs as of less account than the truth. If their majesties wish to bring
about the ancient peace for the churches, and I am sure that they do, beg
their pious graces to take part in the proceedings, that their presence may
overawe those of a contrary mind and the truth may have none to gainsay
her, but may herself by her own unaided powers examine into the position of
affairs, and the character of the apostolic doctrines.
I make this request to your excellency, not because I long to see Cyrus
again, for your lordship knows what a solitary town it is, and how I have
somehow or other managed to conceal its ugliness by my great expenditure on
all kinds of buildings, but to the end that what I preach may be shewn to
be in agreement with apostolic doctrines while the inventions of my
opponents are counterfeit and base. Once let this come to pass, by God's
help be it spoken, and I shall pass the remainder of my days in cheerful
contentment, wherever the Master may bid me dwell. To you who have been
brought up in the true religion, and are dowered with the wealth of
goodness it is becoming to make this effort, and by your urgent counsel to
render yet more zealous our most pious emperor and the Christ-loving
Augusta, zealous already as they are to strengthen their glorious empire by
laudable and rightful energy.
CXXXIX. To Aspar, Consular and Patrician. (1)
To the other good deeds of your excellency must be added your having
acquainted our pious and most christian emperor, whom God's grace has
appointed for the blessing of his subjects, of the enormous wrong done
against me, and your having by a righteous edict annulled an edict which
was nothing of the kind. Supported by divine Providence I have made what
they reckoned a punishment a means of good, and I have welcomed my rest
with delight; but none the less I have been wrongly and illegally treated,
though in no single point guilty of the errors which the enemies of the
truth slanderously laid at my door, but yet made to suffer the penalty of
the greatest criminals. Nay, my fate has been yet harder than theirs. I was
judged without a trial; I was doomed in my absence; when forbidden by the
emperor's orders to go to Ephesus I received the most righteous sentence of
my holy judges. All this has now been undone by his most serene majesty,
through the active interposition of your excellency. I, for my part,
feeling that I should be wrong to keep silent and not offer yon my thanks,
have availed myself of this letter, whereby I beseech your excellency to
speak in warm terms in my behalf both to the victorious and Christian
emperor and to the very godly and pious Augusta. On their behalf I implore
our good Lord as earnestly as lies in my power to guard their empire in
security, and to grant that it may be at once a source of loving protection
for their subjects, and of terror to their foes, and establish honourable
peace for all. May your excellency be induced to petition them completely
to put an end to the agitation of the Church, and order the assembling of
the council; not, like the last, of men who from their habits of unruliness
throw the synod into confusion, but, in peace and quiet, of members
instructed in divine things, and in the habit of confirming the apostolic
decrees and rejecting what is spurious and at variance with the truth. And
I express this hope to the end that your excellency may reap the good which
such a course of conduct is likely to produce.
CXL. To the Master Vincomalus.(1)
I have been much astonished to learn that your magnificence, though
quite unacquainted with me and mine, and knowing only the wrong that had
been done me, stood up as my advocate, and left no means untried to undo
the results of the conspiracy against me. But your excellency will
assuredly receive recompense from our bountiful Lord, for He who promised
to give a reward for a little water will doubtless give greater recompense
to the givers of greater gifts.
I have indeed endured such sufferings as none, or at least very few, of
the ancients have undergone, and this not only from my open foes, but, as I
apprehend, from my real friends. The former attacked me, the latter
betrayed me.
Who in the world ever heard of such a trial? Who ever commanded a
criminal to be tried in his absence after chaining him up at a distance of
more than five and thirty stages? What judge has ever been so savage and
inhuman as not only to try men, aye but to condemn men the sound of whose
voice he has never heard, and this in most savage and inhuman fashion? The
Lord has ordered the erring brother, who spurns advice, after a first,
second and third admonition, to be treated as "an heathen man and a
publican"(2) Now these most equitable and righteous judges have not even
given to them of the same faith with themselves the treatment which they
give to heathen men and publicans. These indeed they do see and
occasionally converse with, and that with all honour and deference where
they appear to be of rank and dignity. But they have ordered me to be cut
off from home, from water, from everything. This is the way in which they
have wished to become imitators of our Father in heaven "Who maketh His sun
to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust."(1) But of these men I will say no more. The tribunal of the Lord
is at hand where is required not stage pretence but the reality of life.
Now I beseech your excellency to express my thanks to the emperor, the
lover of Christ and victorious, and to the very pious and godly Augusta,
for having made true religion the firm root of their pious empire, and to
implore their majesties to make the peace of the churches firm by
commanding the assembling of a council, not of men of violence who throw
the discussion into confusion, but of the lovers of the truth who confirm
the apostolic teaching, and repudiate this new fangled and spurious heresy.
And I pray that of these honourable endeavours you may reap the fruit at
the hands of our loving Lord.
CXLI. To Marcellus, Archimandrite of the Acoemetae.(2)
Bright is made your holiness by your goodly life, exhibiting on earth
the image of the conversation of the angels, but it is made still brighter
by your zeal for the apostolic faith. As keel to boat, as corner-stone to
house, so to them that choose to live in piety is the truth of the
doctrines of the Gospel. For this truth when assailed you have bravely
fought, not striving to protect it as though it were weak, but shewing your
godly disposition; for the teaching of our Master Christ is gifted with
stability and strength, in accordance with the promise of the same Saviour,
"that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."(3) It is the loving
and bountiful Lord who has thought right that I too should be dishonoured
and slain on behalf of this doctrine. For truly we have reckoned dishonour
honour, and death life. We have heard the words of the apostle "For unto us
it is given by God not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His
sake."(4) But the Lord arose like the sleeper, and stopped the mouths of
them that uttered blasphemy against God and injustice against me. But He
has made the tongues of the pious pour forth their fountains in their
wonted message. I, however, am gathering the delightful fruits of rest; as
I look at the agitation of the churches I am grieved, but I rejoice and am
glad at being freed from cares. I have ever been gratified at your
admirable piety, but heretofore I have not written, not from any lack of
regard for the dictates of charity, but because I have waited for some
suitable occasion. Just now, having fallen in with the most pious and
prudent monks who have been sent by your holiness on other business, I have
lost no time in carrying out my wish. I salute your godliness. I beg you in
the first place to support me with your prayers, and further to cheer me by
a letter, for by God's grace I have been attacked for the Gospel's sake.
CXLII. To the same.
I have already addressed your reverence in another letter, and have
delivered it to your much respected brethren. Now again I address your
holiness. I am induced to do so both by your admirable life, and by the
praiseworthy zeal which you have shewn on behalf of the apostolic faith,
fearless alike of imperial power and of episcopal combination. For granted
that the majority of the council consented under coercion, still they did
confirm the new fangled heresy by their signatures. Your holiness, however,
was shaken by none of these things, but abided by the ancient doctrines
which the Lord, by means of both the prophets and the apostles, has taught
the churches to hold. These decrees I pray that I may preserve, and keep to
the end my faith and confession in one Father, one Son and one Holy Ghost.
For the incarnation of the only begotten made no addition to the number of
the Trinity. Even after the incarnation the Trinity is still a Trinity.
This is the teaching I have received from the beginning; this has been my
faith; in this was I baptized; this have I preached; in this have I
baptized, this I continue to hold. Of them that utter a lie about the
Father the Lord has said "When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his
own,"(1) for what is said of the teacher is appropriate to the disciples.
So these men who employ lies against me speak of their own, and do not
describe what is mine. I am comforted by my Master's words "Blessed are ye
when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of
evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for
great is your reward in heaven."(1)
I entreat your piety to pray that I may not have my part among the
wrong doers, but among them that suffer wrong on account of the truth of
the Gospels.
CXLIII. To Andrew, Monk of Constantinople.(2)
I have never seen your piety nor have we ever communicated by letter,
but I have become warmly attached to you. What has wrought the charm and
continues to inflame it is the report unanimously brought by the tasters of
your honey. All express admiration of the orthodoxy of your faith, the
brightness of your life, the constancy of your soul, the harmoniousness of
your character, the attractiveness and sweetness of your society and all
the other characteristics of the true foster child of philosophy. For all
these reasons I am attached to your godliness, and my longing has made me
even begin a correspondence; but, my dear sir, grant me as soon as possible
what I desire and let me have written communication from you. For when
friends are at a distance considerable comfort is given them by epistolary
communication. You will write to no man of heterodox opinions, but to one
nurtured in the teaching of the apostles and preacher not of a quaternity
but of a Trinity, for in reality I see little difference in the impiety of
those who have the hardihood to endeavour to contract into one the two
natures of the Only-begotten and those who endeavour to divide our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, God the Word made man, into two
sons; if such indeed there be; I cannot think so; but Arians, Eunomians,
and Apollinarians too have ever shamelessly fabricated this slander against
the Church, and indeed laborious students may easily perceive that our far
famed Fathers,(3) lights of the churches, laboured at the hands of the foes
of the truth under this accusation which is now levelled against me by the
most excellent champions of the new fangled heresy. Our wise Lord has laid
bare their impiety, for He could not endure to confirm the unholy heresy by
His long suffering. Be sure then, sir, that you will be writing to one of
like sentiments with your own; and of this you can easily assure yourself
from my copious writings.
Write then to me in return, and again your letter, by God's leave,
shall serve to kindle affection. And before you write, give me the help of
your prayers, and beseech our good Lord to guide my feet into the right
road, that I may travel the rest of my journey in accordance with His laws.
You who have won right of access from your unstained life will easily
persuade Him Who is eager to give us His good gifts.
CXLIV. To the soldiers.(1)
Human nature is everywhere the same, but pursuits in life are many and
various. Some men prefer a sailor's career, some a soldier's; some men
become athletes, some husbandmen; some ply one craft trod some another. To
pass by all other differences, some men are zealous and diligent about
divine things, and get themselves instructed in the exact teaching of the
apostolic doctrines; while others, on the contrary, become slaves of the
belly, and suppose that the enjoyment of base pleasures is happiness.
Others again are there, lying in a mean between these two extremes, who do
not exhibit this praiseworthy enthusiasm, nor embrace a life of
incontinence, but still honour the simplicity of the faith. Men who attack
the statement that some things are altogether impossible with God must not,
I apprehend, be classed with the zealous and the well instructed in divine
things, but rather either with those who have no exact knowledge of the
apostolic doctrines, or those who have been enslaved by pleasures and shift
hither and thither at the caprice of a moment, setting forth now one thing
and now another.
You have asked me to write on these points. I should prefer at the
present time to keep silence. But in obedience to the commandment of the
Lord, "Give to every man that asketh of time,"(2) I am constrained briefly
to reply.
I say then that the God of the universe can do all things, but that in
the word "all" is comprehended only what is right and good, for He who is
naturally both wise and good admits of nothing that is of a contrary
nature, but only what becomes his nature. If any objectors gainsay this
statement, ask them if the God of the universe, the lawgiver of truth, can
lie. If they say that lying is possible to God, expel them from your
company as impious and blasphemous. Should they agree that lying is not
possible to the God of the universe, ask them in the second place, if He
who is the fount of justice can become unjust. Should they allow that this
too is impossible to the God of all, you must yet again enquire if the
unfathomable depth of wisdom can become unwise, God cease to be God, the
Lord cease to be the Lord, the Creator be no Creator, the Good not good but
evil and the true Light not light but its opposite. If they admit that all
these things and the like are impossible to God, you must say to them
therefore many things are impossible with God; and that their being
impossible so far from being a proof of want of power, indicates on the
contrary the greatest power.
Even in the case of our own soul, when we say that it cannot die, we do
not predicate weakness of it, but we proclaim its capacity of immortality.
And similarly when we confess the immutability, impassibility, and
immortality of God, we cannot attribute to the divine nature change,
passion, or death. Suppose them to urge that God can do whatever He will,
you must reply to them that He wishes to do nothing which it is not His
nature to do; He is by nature good, therefore He does not wish anything
evil; He is by nature just, therefore He does not wish anything unjust He
is by nature true, therefore He abominates falsehood; He is by nature
immutable, therefore He does not admit of change; and if He does not admit
of change He is always in the same state and condition. This He Himself
asserts through the prophet. "I am the Lord I change not."(1) And the
blessed David says "Thou art the same and Thy years shall have no end."(2)
If He is the same He undergoes no change. If He is naturally superior to
change and mutation He has not become from immortal, mortal nor from
impassible, passible, for had this been possible He would not have taken on
Him our nature. But since He has an immortal nature, He took a body capable
of suffering, and with the body a human soul. Both of these He kept
unstained from the defilements of sin, and gave His soul for the sake of
the souls that had sinned, and His body for the sake of the bodies that had
died. And since the body that was assumed is described as body of the very
only begotten Son of God, He refers the passion of the body to Himself. But
the four evangelists testify that it was not the divine nature but the body
which was nailed to the cross, all teaching with one voice that Joseph of
Arimathea came to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus; that he took down
the body of Jesus from the tree and wrapped in fine linen, and laid in his
own new tomb the body of Jesus; that Mary the Magdalene came to the tomb
seeking the body of Jesus and ran to His disciples, and reported these
things when she could not find the body of Jesus.
This is the unanimous teaching of the evangelists. But if your
opponents urge that the angels said "Come see the place where the Lord
lay"(1) let the foolish folk learn that the divine Scripture says also
about the victorious Stephen "And devout men carried Stephen to his
burial."(2) And yet it was the body only which was deemed proper for
burial, while the soul was not buried together with the body; nevertheless
the body alone was spoken of by the common name. Similarly the blessed
Jacob said to his sons "Bury me with my fathers."(3) He did not say "Bury
my body." Then he went on "There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife;
there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah."(4)
He did not say "their bodies." The names are common to bodies or souls, but
nevertheless it is only the bodies which he called by the common names. In
this manner too we constantly describe the shrines of the holy apostles,
prophets and martyrs, one it may be of Dionysius, another of Julianus
another of Cosmas.(5) And yet we know that only fragmentary remains of
bodies lie there, while the souls in diviner regions are at rest. Precisely
the same custom is to be found in common use, for such an one, We say,
died; and such all one lies in this place; although we know that the soul
is immortal and does not share the tomb with the body. In this sense the
angel said "Come see the place where the Lord lay"(6) not because he shut
the Godhead in the tomb, but because he spoke of the Lord's body by the
Lord's name.
In proof of this being the view of the holy Fathers let them mark the
words of Athanasius, illustrious archbishop of Alexandria, who adorned his
episcopate with confession. He exclaims "Life cannot die, but rather
quickens the dead."
Let them hear too the words of the farfamed Damasus bishop of Rome, "If
anyone allege that on the cross pain was undergone by the Godhead and not
by the body with the soul, the form of the servant which He had taken in
its completeness, let him be anathema."(1)
Let them hear too the very sacred and holy bishop of the Church of the
Romans, the lord Leo, who has now written "The Son of God suffered as He
was capable of suffering, not according to the nature which assumed but
that which was assumed. For the impassible nature assumed the passible
body, and gave it for us, to the end that He might work out our salvation
and at the same time preserve His own nature impassible."
And again "For He did not come to destroy His own nature but to save
ours."(2)
If therefore they accuse us for saying that God can do what He wishes,
but that He wishes what is becoming to His own nature, and what is
unbecoming He neither wishes nor is capable of; let them accuse too these
saints and all the rest who maintain this position. Let them accuse even
the Apostle who say's 'That by two immutable things in which it was
impossible for God to lie."(3) And again "If we believe not, yet He abideth
faithful: He cannot deny Himself."(4)
Repeat these passages to your opponents, and if they are convinced,
praise the good Lord for that, by means of your zeal, He has benefited
them. If they remain unconvinced, enter into no discussion with them about
doctrines, for it is forbidden by the divine apostle to "strive about words
to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers."(5) But do you keep
inviolate the teaching of the Gospels, that in the day of His appearing you
may bring to the righteous Judge what has been entrusted to you with its
due interest, and may hear the longed for words "Well done good and
faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make
thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."(6)
CXLV. To the Monks of Constantinople.(7)
There is nothing new or surprising in the fact that the men who have
made their tongues weapons against our God and Saviour should also aim
their shahs of falsehood against His right minded servants. It must needs
be that the servants who grieve sorely at the outrage inflicted on their
Master should share it. That so it should be they have been forwarned by
their Lord Himself, Who consoles His holy disciples with the words "If they
have persecuted me they will also persecute you."(1) "If they have called
the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of
His household."(2) Then He cheered them by pointing out that calumny is
easily detected, for He went on "There is nothing covered that shall not be
revealed and hid that shall not be known."(3) I have often seen the truth
of the divine prediction, but I see it with special clearness now. The
authors of the calumny against me, who have bought my destruction for large
sums of money, have been distinctly seen to be involved in the unsoundness
of Valentinus and Bardesanes. They had hoped to cloke their own iniquity if
only they could whet their tongues on the hone of falsehood in order to
wound me. For ever since I saw that the heresy long ago extinguished had
been renewed by these men I never ceased to cry aloud, hearing my testimony
in private and in public, as well in social gatherings as in the temples of
God, and strive to confute their conspiracy against the faith. They have
consequently poured out their insults on my head, and allege that I preach
two sons. But they ought to have convicted me to my face, not slandered me
behind my back. They have done just the contrary. They tied me band and
foot at Cyrus by the imperial decree; they compelled the very righteous
judges to condemn me without a trial, and delivered their most equitable
sentence against a man who was five and thirty stages away. Such treatment
was never suffered by any criminal charged with witchcraft or robbery of
the dead, by murderer or by adulterer. But for the present I will leave the
judges alone, for the Lord is at hand "Who judges the world with
righteousness and the people with his truth;"(4) Who exacts an account not
only of words and deeds, but even of evil thoughts. But think it right to
refute the false charge which has been made. What proof have they of my
asserting two sons? Had I been one of the silent kind there might have been
some ground for the suspicion, but my task has been to contend on behalf of
the apostolic decrees, to bring the pasture of instruction to the Lord's
flocks, and to this end I have written five and thirty books interpreting
the divine Scripture, and proving the falsehood of the heresies. The
falsehoods these men have concocted are therefore easy of refutation. Tens
on tens of thousands of hearers testify that I have taught the truth of the
doctrines of the Gospel, and for any one who likes to bring them to the
test my writings lie before the world. Not on behalf of a duality of sons,
but of the only begotten Son of God, against the heathen, against Jews,
against the recipients of the plague of Arius and Eunomius, against the
supporters of the madness of Apollinarius, against the victims of the
corruption of Marcion, I have never ceased to struggle; trying to convince
the heathen that the Eternal Son of the ever living God is Himself Creator
of the Universe; the Jews that about Him the prophets: uttered their
predictions, the Arians and Eunomians that He is of one substance, of one
dignity and of equal power with the Father; Marcion's mad adherents that He
is not only good but just; and Saviour not, as they fable, of another's
works, but of His own. Once for all, fighting against each heresy, I charge
men to fall clown and worship the one Son.
And what need is there of many words, when it is possible to refute
falsehood in few? We provide that those who year by year come up for holy
baptism should carefully learn the faith set forth at Nicaea by the holy
and blessed Fathers; and initiating them as we have been bidden,(1) we
baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, pronouncing each name singly. Furthermore when performing divine
service in the churches, both at the beginning and the decline of day and
when dividing the day itself into three parts, we glorify the Father the
Son and the Holy Ghost.(2) If, as our slanderers allege, we preach two
sons, which do we glorify and which do we leave unworshipped? It were the
wildest folly to believe that there are two sons, and to give the doxology
to one alone. And who is so distraught as, while hearing the words of the
divine Paul "one Lord, one faith, one baptism,"(2) and again "there is one
Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things,"(4) to lay down the law at
variance with the teaching of the Spirit, and cut the one in two. But I am
prating unnecessarily, for these men, nurtured in falsehood as they are, do
not even dare to assert that they have ever heard me say anything of the
kind; but they affirm that I preach two sons because I confess the two
natures of our Master Christ. And they refuse to perceive that every human
being has both an immortal soul and a mortal body; yet no one has hitherto
been found to call Paul two Pauls because he has both soul and body, any
more than Peter two Peters or Abraham or Adam. Everyone recognises the
distinction of the natures, and does not call one man two Pauls. Precisely
in the same way, when styling our Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son
of God, God the Word incarnate, both Son of God and Son of Man, as we have
been taught by the divine Scripture, we do not assert two sons, but we do
confess the peculiar properties of the Godhead and of the manhood. The
party however who deny the nature assumed of us men cannot hear these
arguments without irritation.
It is only right that I should point out from what sources they have
derived this impiety. Simon, Menander, Cerdo, and Marcion absolutely deny
the incarnation, and call the birth from a Virgin fable. Valentinus,
however, Basilides, Bardesanes, and Harmonius and their following, accept
the conception of the Virgin and the birth; but they deny that God the Word
took anything from the Virgin, but made as it were a transit through her as
through a conduit, and appeared to mankind in semblance only, and seeming
to be a man, in like manner as He was seen by Abraham and certain others of
the ancients: Arius and Eunomius on the contrary held that He assumed a
body, but that the Godhead played the part of the soul, in order that they
may attribute to it what was lowly in His words and deeds. Apollinarius did
indeed assert that He assumed a soul with the body, not the reasonable
soul, but the soul which is called animal or phytic.(1) Their contention is
that the Godhead took the part of the mind. He had learnt the distinction
of soul and of mind from the philosophers that are without while divine
Scripture says that man consists of soul and body. For we read "And the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul."(2) And the Lord
in the sacred Gospels said to His apostles "Fear not them which kill the
body but are not able to kill the soul."(3)
So great is the divergence between the doctrines. These men have now
done their best to outdo Apollinarius, Arius and Eunomius, in their impiety
and have now endeavoured to plant anew the heresy sown of old by Valentinus
and Bardesanes, and afterwards uprooted by most excellent husbandmen. Like
Valentinus and Bardesanes they have denied that the body of our Lord was
assumed of our nature. But the Church, following the footprints of the
Apostles, contemplates in the Lord Christ both perfect Godhead and perfect
manhood. For just as He took a body, not that He needed a body, but by its
means to give immortality to all bodies; so too He took a soul, the guide
of the body, that every soul by its means might share His immutability. For
even if souls are immortal, they are not however immutable; for they
undergo many and frequent changes, as they experience pleasure, now from
one object, and now from another. Whence it cometh about that we err when
we are changed and are inclined to what is worse. But after the
resurrection our bodies enjoy immortality and incorruptibility, and our
souls impassibility and immutability. For this reason the only begotten Son
of God took both a body and a soul, preserved them free from all blame, and
offered the sacrifice for the race. And this is why He is called our high
priest; and He is named high priest not as God but as man. He makes the
offering as man, and accepts the sacrifice with the Father and the Holy
Spirit as God. If only Adam's body had sinned, it alone should have
benefited by the cure. But since the soul not only shared in the sin but
was first in the sin, for first the thought forms an image of the sin and
then carries it out by means of the body, it was just, I ween, that the
soul too should be healed. But it is perhaps superfluous to demonstrate
these points by reasoning, when the divine Scripture clearly proclaims
them. This doctrine is distinctly taught by the holy David and the very
divine Peter, the one foretelling from distant ages, and the other
interpreting his prediction. The words of the first of the apostles are
"David therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an
oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He
would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of
the resurrection of Christ that His soul was not left in hell neither His
flesh did see corruption."(1)Now he has given us much instruction on the
same point in these few words. First he states that the assumed nature
derives its descent from the loins of David; secondly that He took not a
body only, but also an immortal soul, and thirdly that He delivered body
and soul to death, and, after taking them again, raised them as He would.
His own words are "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it
up."(1) But we have learnt that the divine nature is immortal. What
suffered was the passible, and the impassible remained impassible. For God
the Word was made math not to render the impassible nature passible, but on
the passible nature, by means of the Passion, to bestow the boon of
impassibility. And the Lord Himself in the holy Gospels at one time says "I
have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again, no man
taketh it from me but I lay it down of myself;" "That I may take it
again."(2) Anti again "Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down
my life for the sheep,"(3) and again "Now is my soul troubled"(4) "my soul
is exceeding sorrowful even unto death."(5) and of His body He says "The
bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the
world,"(6) and when He delivered the divine mysteries and broke the symbol
and distributed it, He added "This is my body which is being broken for you
for the remission of sins,"(7) and again "This is my blood which is shed
for many for the remission of sins,"(8) and again "Except ye eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood ye have no life in you"(9) and
"Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life" "in
himself" he adds.(10) Innumerable passages of the same character may be
quoted, both in the old Testament find the new, pointing out the assumption
both of the body and of the soul, and that they are descended from Abraham
and David. Joseph of Arimathea when he came to Pilate begged the body of
Jesus, and the fourfold authority(11) of the holy Gospels tells us how he
received the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and committed it to the
tomb. I do, indeed, sorrow and lament that I am compelled by the attacks of
error to adduce against men supposed to be of one and the same faith with
myself the arguments which I have already urged against the victims of the
plague of Marcion,--of whom, by God's grace, I have converted more than ten
thousand, and brought them to Holy Baptism. What child of the church ever
had any doubts on these points? Who has not cited this teaching of the holy
Fathers? The works of the great Basil are full of it; as well, as those of
his fellow soldiers Gregory and Amphilochius, and of those who in the West
have been illustrious teachers of grace, Damasus, bishop of great Rome, and
Ambrose of Milan; and Cyprian of Carthage who for the sake of these
doctrines won the martyr's crown. Five times was the famous Athanasius
driven from his flock and compelled to dwell in exile; and in the cause of
these doctrines strove too his master Alexander. Eustathius, Meletius, and
Flavianus, luminaries of the East, and Ephraim, harp of the Spirit, who
daily waters the people of Syria with the streams of grace; John and
Atticus, lend heralds of the truth; and men of an earlier age than they,
Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin, and Hippolytus, of whom the more part
not only shine at the head of the company of bishops, but also adorn the
martyr's band.
He, too, who now rules great Rome and diffuses in all directions from
the West the rays of right teaching, the most holy Leo, has expressed to me
this distinctive mark of the faith in his own letters. All these have
clearly taught that the only begotten Son of God and everlasting God,
ineffably begotten of the Father, is one Son; and that after the
incarnation He was called both Son of man and man, not because He was
changed into manhood, for His nature is immutable, but because He took what
was ours. They teach too that He was both impassible and immortal as God,
and mortal and passible as man; but after the resurrection even in relation
to His humanity He received impassibility and immortality, for, though the
body remained a body, still it is impassible and immortal, verily a divine
body and glorified with divine glory. This is distinctly told us by the
blessed Paul in the words "For our conversation is in heaven from whence
also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our
vile body that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory."(2) He
does not say to "His glory" but to "the body of His glory," and the Lord
Himself, when He had said to His apostles "There be some standing here
which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in His
Father's glory,"(1) took them after six days into an exceeding high
mountain, and was transfigured before them, and His face became as the sun,
and His raiment was bright like the light.(2) By these means He shewed the
manner of the second advent. He taught that the assumed nature is not
uncircumscribed (for this is characteristic of the Godhead alone) but that
it shall send forth flashes of the divine glory, and emit rays of light
transcending the powers of the sense of sight. With this glory He was taken
up; with this the angels said that He should come; for their words were "He
who was taken from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have
seen him go into heaven."(2) When moreover He was seen by the divine
apostles after the resurrection, He shewed them both hands and feet; and to
Thomas He shewed also His side and the wounds of the nails and of the
spear. For on account of those men who positively deny the assumption of
the flesh, and further of those others who assert that after the
resurrection the nature of the body was changed into the nature of Godhead,
He preserved unaltered the prints of the nails and of the spear. And while
raising all other bodies free from every disfigurement,(4) in His own body
He left the marks of His sufferings. to the end that deniers of the
assumption of the body may be convicted of their error by means of His
sufferings; and holders of the notion that His body was changed into
another nature may be taught by the print of the nails that it abides in
its own proper qualities. Suppose any one to imagine that he has a proof
that the body of the Lord did not remain a body after the resurrection in
the fact that He came in to the disciples when the doors were shut, let
such an one remember how He walked upon the sea while His body was still
mortal, how He was born after keeping the seals of virginity intact, and
how again when encircled by them that were plotting against Him He
frequently escaped from their hands. But why need I mention the Lord, who
was not only man, but God before the ages, and to whom it was easy to do
whatsoever He would? Let them tell how Habakkuk was translated from Judaea
into Babylon in a moment of time and passed through the covering of the
den, and brought the food to Daniel, and returned again. without destroying
the seals of the den.(5) It is sheer foolishness to enquire into the manner
of the miracles of the Lord, but in addition to what has been said it ought
also to be known that after the resurrection our bodies also will be
incorruptible and immortal, and being released from what is earthly will
become light and aethereal. This moreover is distinctly taught us by the
divine Paul in the words "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in
incorruption, it is sown in weakness it is raised in power; it is sown in
dishonour it is raised in glory; it is sown a natural body it is raised a
spiritual body"' and in another place "We shall be caught up in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air."(2) If then the bodies of the saints become
light and aethereal and easily travel through the air, we cannot wonder
that the Lord's body united to the Godhead of the only begotten, when,
after the resurrection, it had become immortal, entered in when the doors
were shut.
Countless other proofs might be quoted without difficulty from apostles
and prophets. But what has been already said is enough to show the drift of
my teaching. I believe in one Father, one Son and one Holy Ghost; and I
confess one Godhead, one Lordship, one substance and three hypostases. For
the incarnation of the only begotten did not add to the number of the
Trinity, and make the Trinity a quaternity, but, even after the incarnation
the Trinity was still a Trinity. And while confessing that the only
begotten Son of God was made man I do not deny the nature which He took,
but confess, as I have said, both the nature which took and the nature
which was taken. The union did not confound the properties of the natures.
For if the air by receiving the light through all its parts does not cease
to be air, nor yet at the same time destroy the nature of the light, for
with our eves we behold the light and by our feeling we recognise the air,
as it meets us cold or hot, or moist or dry, so it were sheer folly to call
the union of the Godhead and the manhood confusion. If created natures
which share at once subordinate anti temporal existence, when united and in
some sense mingled, yet remain unimpaired, and, when the light withdraws,
the nature of the air is left alone, much more proper is it, I apprehend,
for the nature which fashioned all things, when conjoined with and united
to the nature which it assumed from us, to be acknowledged to continue
itself in its purity, and in like manner to preserve unimpaired that which
it had assumed. Gold, too, when brought in contact with the fire,
participates both in the colour and power of fire, but it does not lose its
own nature, but at the same time remains gold and has the active qualities
of fire. In this manner also the Lord's body is a body, but impassible,
incorruptible, immortal, of the Lord, divine and glorified with the divine
glory. It is not separated from the Godhead, nor yet is of any one else,
save of the only begotten Son of God Himself. For it does not show to us
another person, but the only-begotten Himself clad in our nature.
This is the doctrine which I am continually preaching. They on the
other hand who deny the incarnation wrought on our behalf have called me a
heretic, adopting a course something like that of unchaste females, who,
while they sell their own charms, assail honest women with the insults of
their profession, and apply language proper to their own wantonness to
women who hold such wantonness in abhorrence. This is how Egypt has acted.
She has herself fallen willingly into the thraldom of base desire. She has
lavished her servile adulation on a man of chaste character. Then, failing
to entice him by her wiles, or to trap him in the snares of her voluptuous
passion, she describes one who is faithful to purity as an adulterer.
But these men will be called to account by God, as well for their
devices against the faith as for the snares they have laid against me. I
only charge those who have been influenced by the false accusations uttered
against me to keep one ear for the accused, and not to give both to the
accusers. In this manner they will fulfil the divine law which lays down
"Thou shall not raise a false report,"(3) and "Judge righteously between
every man and his brother."(2) In these words the divine law charges us not
to believe the calumnies uttered against the absent but to judge the
accused face to face.
CXLVI. To John the Oeconomus.(3)
Rest and a life free from care are very grateful to me. I have
therefore blocked the door of the monastery, and decline intercourse with
my friends.
But I have received information that fresh attacks are being made
against the Faith of the Gospels, and therefore conclude that there may be
danger in my silence. When wrong has been done some mortal prince, not only
the guilty authors of the outrage but they also who have been standing by
and made no effort to drive off the assailants, are in peril of punishment:
What penalty then ought not to be undergone by men who can venture to look
lightly on the utterance of blasphemy against our God and Saviour? This is
the fear which has impelled me now to write and expose the innovations of
which I have been informed.
It is said that a common report in the city represents that after
certain presbyters had offered prayer, and concluded it in the wonted
manner, while some said "For to Thee belongs glory and to thy Christ and to
the Holy Ghost;" and others "Through grace and loving kindness of thy
Christ, with whom belongs glory to Thee with thy holy Spirit," the very
wise archdeacon prohibited the use of the expression, "the Christ" and said
that the "only begotten" ought to be glorified. If this is true it were
impossible to exceed the impiety. For he either divides the one Lord Jesus
Christ into two sons and regards the only begotten Son as lawful and
natural, but the Christ as adopted and spurious, and consequently unmeet
for being honoured in doxology; or else he is endeavouring to support the
heresy which has now burst in on us with the riot of wild revelry. Had a
grievous tempest been now oppressing us, any one might have supposed that
the blasphemer suited his blasphemy to the necessity of the moment. through
fear of the power of the originators of the heresy. But now that He who is
blasphemed has rebuked the winds and the sea, and blessed the storm-tossed
churches with a calm, while everywhere by land and sea the proclamation of
the apostles is preached, what room is there for the blasphemy? While not
even they who have lately basely inserted among the doctrines of the Church
that flesh and godhead are of one and the same nature have ever forbidden
the offering of praise to the Lord Christ. This fact may be easily
ascertained from those who have returned thence. A man holding the foremost
place in the ecclesiastical rank ought to have known the divine Scripture,
and to have learnt from it that just as the heralds of the truth rank the
only begotten Son with the Father, so accordingly using the title of "the
Christ" instead of that of "Son" they number Him sometimes with the Father
and sometimes with the Holy Ghost; for the Christ is none other than the
only begotten Son of God. So we may quote the divine Paul writing to the
Corinthians, but teaching the world, that "There is one God the Father of
whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things."(1)
Thus he calls the same person, Christ, Jesus, Lord, and Creator of all
things. And writing to the Thessalonians he says "Now God Himself and our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you."(2) And in his
second epistle to the same he puts the Christ before the Father, not to
invert the order, but to teach that the order of the names does not
indicate a distinction of dignity and nature. His words are "Now our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and
hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work."(3) And at the
end of his Epistle to the Romans after certain exhortations he adds "I
beseech you brethren for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of
the spirit."(4) Now if he had known the Christ as being any other than the
Son he would not have put Him before the Holy Ghost. Writing to the
Corinthians, at the very beginning of his letter, he mentions the name of
Christ as alone sufficient to influence the faithful. "Now I beseech you
brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same
thing"(5) and when writing to them a second time he thus concludes "The
peace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the
communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all."(6) Here he puts the name of
Christ not only before the Spirit, but also before the Father and this in
all the churches is the beginning of the Liturgy of the Mystery.
According, then, to this extraordinary regulation the august name of
our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, ought to be omitted from the mystic
writings. But it is unnecessary to say more on this point. The opening of
every one of his letters is distinguished by the divine Apostle with this
address. At one time it is "Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an
apostle."' At another "Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ."(8) At
another "Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ."(9) And
suiting his benediction to his exordium he deduces it from the same source
and links the title of the Son with God the Father, saying "Grace to you
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."(10) And he graces
the conclusion of his letters with the blessing "The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all, amen."(1)
Copious additional evidence may be found whereby it may be learnt
without difficulty that our Lord Jesus Christ is no other person than the
Son which completes the Trinity. For the same before the ages was only
begotten Son and God the Word, and after the resurrection He was called
Jesus and Christ. receiving the names from the facts. Jesus means Saviour;
"Thou shall call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their
sins."(2)
He is named Christ from being as man anointed with the Holy Ghost, and
called our High Priest, Apostle, Prophet and King. Long ago the divine
Moses exclaimed "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet, from
the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me."(3) And the divine David
cries "The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever
after the order of Melchisedek."(4) This prophecy is confirmed by the
divine Apostle.(5) And again "seeing then that we have a great High Priest
that has passed into the heavens. Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession."(6)
That as God, He is king before the ages that prophetic minstrelsy
teaches us in the words "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the
sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre."(7)
His majesty as man is also shown us. For having the sovereignty of all
things as God and Creator, He assumes this majesty as man, wherefore it is
added "Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness, therefore God thy
God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."(8) And
in the second psalm the anointed one himself says "Yet was I set as king by
Him upon the holy hill of Sion, I will declare the decree of the Lord. The
Lord hath said unto me 'Thou art my Son this day have I begotten Thee; ask
of me and I shall give Thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.'"(9) This He said as man,
for as man He receives what as God He possesses. And at the very beginning
of the psalm the gift of prophecy ranks Him with God the Father in the
words "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing. The
kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed."(10)
Let no one then foolishly suppose that the Christ is any other than the
only begotten Son. Let us not imagine ourselves wiser than the gift of the
Spirit. Let us hear the words of the great Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God."(1) Let us hear the Lord Christ confirming this
confession, for "On this rock," He says, "I will build my church and the
gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."(2) Wherefore too the wise
Paul, most excellent master builder of the churches, fixed no other
foundation than this. "I," he says, "as a wise master builder have laid the
foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how
he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ."(3) How then can they think of any other foundation,
when they are bidden not to fix a foundation, but to build on that which is
laid? The divine writer recognises Christ as the foundation, and glories in
this title, as when he says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me."(4) And again "To me to live is
Christ and to die is gain,"(5) and again "For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."(6) And a little
before he says, "But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-
block and to the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called both
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."(7) And in
his Epistle to the Galatians be writes, "But when it pleased God who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His
Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen."(8) But when writing
to the Corinthians he does not say we preach "the Son" but "Christ
crucified," herein doing no violence to his commission, but recognising the
same to be Jesus, Christ, Lord, only begotten, and God the Word. For the
same reason too at the beginning of his letter to the Romans he calls
himself "servant of Jesus Christ" and describes himself as "separated unto
the gospel of God, which He had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy
Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God
with powers"(1) and so on. He calls the same both Jesus Christ, and Son of
David, and Son of God, as God and Lord of all, and yet in the middle of his
epistle, after making mention of the Jews, he adds, "whose are the fathers,
and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God
blessed for ever, amen."(2) Here he says that He who according to the flesh
derived His descent froth the Jews is eternal God and is praised by the
right minded as Lord of all created things. The same teaching is given us
in the Apostle's words to the excellent Titus "Looking for that blessed
hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ."(3) Here he calls the same both Saviour, and great God, and Jesus
Christ. And in another place he writes, "In the kingdom of Christ and of
God."(4) Moreover the chorus of the angels announced to the shepherds "
Unto you is born this day in the city of David ... Christ the Lord."(5)
But to men who meditate on God's law day and night, it is indeed
needless to write all the proofs of this kind; the above are sufficient to
persuade even the most obstinate opponents not to divide the divine titles.
One point, however, I cannot endure to omit. He is alleged to have said
that there are many Christs but one Son. Into this error I suppose he fell
through ignorance. For if he had read the divine Scripture, he would have
known that the title of the Son has also been bestowed by our bountiful
Lord on many. The lawgiver Moses, the writer of the ancient history, says
"And the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they
took them wives of them,"(6) and the God of all Himself said to this
Prophet "Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Israel is my son even my first-
born."(7) In the great song he says "Rejoice O ye nations with His people
and let all the sons of God be strong in Him;"(8) and by the mouth of the
prophet Isaiah He says "I have nourished and brought up sons (children)
and they have rebelled against me;"(9) and through the thrice blessed David
"I have said ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most
High,"(10) and to the Romans the wise Paul wrote in this manner, "For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the
I spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. For the Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if
children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be
that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together;"(1) and to
the Galatians he writes "And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the
spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou
art no more a servant but a son; and if a son then an heir of God through
Jesus Christ."(2) The lesson he gives to the Ephesians is "in love having
predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself."(3)
If then, because the name of the Christ is common, we ought not to
glorify the Christ as God, we shall equally shrink from worshipping Him as
Son, since this also is a name which has been bestowed upon many. And why
do I say the Son? The very name of God itself has been given by God to
many. "The Lord the God of gods hath spoken and called the earth."(4) And
"I have said Ye are gods,"(5) and "Thou shalt not revile the gods."(6) Many
too have appropriated tiffs name to themselves. The daemons who have
deceived mankind have given this title to idols; whence Jeremiah exclaims,
"The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall
perish from the earth and from under these heavens;"(7) and again "They
made to themselves gods of silver and gods of gold;"(8) and the prophet
Isaiah when he had mocked the making of the idols, and said "He burneth
part thereof in the fire with part thereof he eateth flesh he warmeth
himself and saith Aha I am warm I have seen the fire,"(9) went on "and the
residue thereof he maketh a god and falleth down unto it and saith 'Deliver
me for thou art my god'"(10) and so the prophet laments over them and says
"Know that their heart is ashes."(11) And the Psalmist David has taught us
to sing "For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the
heavens."(12)
But this common use of titles gives no offence to men who are
instructed in true religion. We are aware that the daemons have falsely
bestowed upon themselves and on idols the divine name, while the saints
have received this honour of free grace.
In reality and by nature it is the God of all, and His only-begotten
Son and the Holy Spirit which are God. This is distinctly taught us by the
admirable Paul in the words "For though there be that are called gods
whether in heaven or in earth, as there are gods many and lords many, but
to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in
Him; and one Lord by whom are all things and we by Him."(1) And the Holy
Spirit is called the Spirit of God and so also is the soul of man, for, it
is written, "His breath goeth forth,"(2) and "O ye spirits and souls of the
righteous bless ye the Lord,"(3) and the Psalmist David called the angels
spirits. "Who maketh His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of
fire."(4) Why indeed do I mention the angels and the souls of men? Even the
daemons are so called by the Lord "He shall take unto him seven other
spirits more wicked than himself and they shall enter in, and the last
state of that man shall be worse than the first."(5) But even this
application of the name does not offend the pious reader, for the Father
and His only begotten Son and His Holy Spirit are one God by nature; and
the divine Word made man, our Lord Jesus Christ, is by nature one Son, only
begotten of the Father; and the Comforter who completes the number of the
Trinity is one Holy Ghost. Thus though many are named fathers, we worship
one Father, the Father before the ages, who Himself gave this title to men,
as the Apostle says, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every fatherhood in heaven and earth is
named."(6) Let us not then, because others are called christs, rob
ourselves of the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. For just as though
many are called gods and fathers, there is one God and Father over all and
before the ages; and though many are called sons, there is one real and
natural Son; and though many are styled spirits there is one Holy Ghost;
just so though many are called christs there is one Lord Jesus Christ by
Whom are all things. And very properly does the Church cling to this name;
for she has heard Paul, escorter of the Bride, exclaiming "I have espoused
you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,"(7)
and again "Husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the Church,"(1)
and again "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and
shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a
great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church."(2) Listen to
him as he says "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us,"(3) and elsewhere "Know ye not that so many of us as
were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized into His death,"(4) and in
another place, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ,"(5) and again "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lust thereof."(6)
They who are blessed by the boons of God and have learnt to know these
passages and others like them, kindled with warm love for their bountiful
Master, constantly carry on their lips this His dearest name and cry in the
words of the Song of Songs "My beloved is mine and I am his;" "I sat down
under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my
taste."(7) And besides all this that name of ours which we love so well we
have derived from the name of Christ. We are called Christians.(8)
Of this name the Lord of all says, "The Lord God shall call His
servants by another name which shall be blessed on the earth"(9) and the
following is the reason why the Church specially clings to this name. When
the only-begotten Son of God was made man, then He was named Christ, then
human nature received the beams of intellectual light; then the heralds of
the truth shed their beams upon the world. Teachers of the Church, however,
constantly used the names of the only begotten without distinction; at one
time they glorify the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost; at another the
Father with Christ and the Holy Ghost; yet as far as the sense is concerned
there is here no difference. Wherefore after the Lord had commanded to
baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost the
blessed Peter said to them who received his preaching and asked what they
must do, "Believe and be baptized every one of you in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ,"(1) as though this name contained in itself all the potency
of the divine command. The same teaching is clearly given us by the great
Basil, luminary of the Cappadocians,(2) or rather of the world. His words
are "the ham e of Christ is the confession of the whole." It indicates at
once the Father, who anointed, the Son, who was anointed, and the Holy
Ghost whereby He was anointed. Furthermore the thrice blessed Fathers
assembled in council at Nicaea, after saying that we must believe in one
God, the Father, added "and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son
of God." Thereby they teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is Himself the only
begotten Son of God.
To what has been said it must also be added that we must not affirm
that after the ascension the Lord Christ is not Christ but only begotten
Son. The divine Gospels and the history of the Acts and the Epistles of the
Apostle himself were, as we know, written after the ascension. It is after
the ascension that the divine Paul exclaims "Seeing then that we have a
great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold fast our profession."(3) And again, "For Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true;
but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."(4)
And again after speaking of our hope in God he adds" which hope we have as
an anchor both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the
veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made an High
Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."(1) And when, writing to
the blessed Titus about the second advent he says," Looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ."(2) And to the Thessalonians he wrote in similar terms "For
they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and
how we turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to
wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come."(3) And again "And the Lord make
you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men,
even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable
in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ with all his saints."(4) And again when writing to the same a second
time he says, "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him."(5) And a little
further on when predicting the destruction of antichrist he adds, "Whom the
Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the
brightness of his coming."(6) And when exhorting the Romans to concord he
says, "But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught
thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For
it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and
every tongue shall confess to God."(7) And the Lord Himself when announcing
His second advent besides other things says too this "Then if any man shall
say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For as the
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall
also the coming of the Son of Man be."(8)
And after the immortality and incorruptibility of His body He called
Himself Son of Man, naming Himself from the nature which was seen, inasmuch
as the divine nature is indeed invisible to angels, as the Lord Himself had
said "No one hath seen God at any time."(9) And to the great Moses He said
"There shall no man see me and live."(10)
The words "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we
have known Christ after the flesh; yet now henceforth know we Him no
more,"(1) were not written by the divine Apostle in order to annul the
assumed nature, but for the confirmation of our own future incorruption,
immortality, and spiritual life.
The Apostle therefore continues "Therefore if any man be in Christ he
is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become
new."(2) He speaks of what is to be in the future as though it had already
come to pass. We have not yet been gifted with immortality, but we shall
be; and when so gifted we shall not become bodiless, but we shall put on
immortality. "For" says the divine Apostle, "we would not be unclothed, but
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."(3) And again
"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality."(4) Thus he did not speak of the Lord as bodiless, but taught
us to believe that even the visible nature is incorruptible, and glorified
with the divine glory. This instruction he has given us yet more clearly in
the Epistle to the Philippians; "For our conversation" he writes "is in
heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ;
who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body."(5) By these words he teaches us distinctly that the body of
the Lord is a body, but a divine body, and glorified with the divine glory.
Let us, then, not shun the name whereby we enjoy salvation, and whereby
all things are made new, as says our teacher himself in his Epistle to the
Ephesians,--"According to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in
Himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of time He might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which
are on earth, even in Him."(6) Let us rather learn from this blessed
language how we are bound to glorify our benefactor, by connecting the name
of Christ with our God and Father. In his Epistle to the Romans the Apostle
says "my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but
now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to
the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the
obedience of faith; to God only will be glory through Jesus Christ forever.
Amen."(1) Writing to the Ephesians he thus gives praise--"Now unto Him that
is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. And a little
before he says, "For this cause I bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named."(3) And
considerably farther on he says "Giving thanks always for all things unto
God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."(4) And when he
requites with benediction the liberality of the Philippians he says "But my
God shall supply all your need according to His riches m glory by Christ
Jesus."(5) And for the Hebrews he prayed, "Now the God of peace, that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect
in every good work, to do His will, working in you that which is well
pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and
ever. Amen."(6) And not only when glorifying, but also when exhorting and
protesting, the Apostle conjoins the Christ with God the Father. To the
blessed Timothy he exclaims "I charge thee therefore before God and the
Lord Jesus Christ."(7) And again "I give thee charge in the sight of God
who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius
Pilate witnessed a good confession; that thou keep this commandment without
spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in
His times He shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of
kings and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light
which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; to whom
be honour and power everlasting. Amen."(8)
These are the lessons we have learnt from the divine Apostles; this is
the teaching given us by John and Matthew, those mighty rivers of the
gospel message. The latter says "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ
the son of David, the son of Abraham;"(9) and the former when he shewed the
things which were before the ages wrote, "In the beginning was the Word and
the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him."
CXLVII.(2) To John, Bishop of Germanicia.
Immediately on receipt of your holiness's former letter I replied.
About the present state of affairs, it is impossible to entertain any good
hope. I apprehend that this is the beginning of the general apostasy. For
when we see that those who lament what was done as they say, by violence,
at Ephesus, show no signs of repentance, but abide by their unlawful deeds
and are building up a superstructure at once of injustice and of impiety;
when we see that the rest take no concerted action to deny their deeds and
do not refuse to hold communion with men who abide by their unlawful
action, what hope of good is it possible for us to entertain? Had they been
expressing their admiration of what has happened as though all had been
well and rightly done, it would only have been proper for them to abide by
what they themselves commend. But if, as they say, they are lamenting what
has been done and stating it to have been done by force and violence, why
in the world do they not repudiate what has been unlawfully done? Why is
the present, which lasts for such a little time, preferred before what is
sure to come to pass? Why in the world do they openly lie and deny that any
innovation has been introduced into doctrine? On account of what murders
and witchcrafts have I been expelled? What adulteries did the man commit?
What tombs did the man violate? It is perfectly clear even to outsiders
that it was for doctrine that I and the rest were expelled. Why the Lord
Domnus too, because he would not accept "the Chapters"(3) was deposed by
these excellent persons who called them admirable and confessed that they
abided by them. I had read their propositions, and they rejected me as the
head and front of the heresy and expelled others for the same reason.(4)
What has happened proves plainly enough that they supposed the Saviour
to have laid down the law of practical virtue rather for Hamaxobians(1)
than for them. When some men had given in charges against Candidianus, the
Pisidian,(2) accusing him of several acts of adultery and other iniquities,
it is said that the president of the council remarked, "If you are bringing
accusation on points of doctrine, we receive your charges; we have not come
here to decide about adulteries." Accordingly Athenius and Athanasius(3)
who had been expelled by the Eastern Synod were bidden to return to their
own churches; just as though our Saviour had laid down no laws about
conduct, and had only ordered us to observe doctrines--which those most
sapient persons have been foremost in corrupting. Let them then cease to
mock; let them no longer attempt to conceal the impiety which they have
confirmed by blows as well as by words. If this is not the case, let them
tell us the reasons of the massacres; let them own in writing the
distinction between the natures of our Saviour, and that the union is
without confusion; let them declare that after the union both Godhead and
manhood remained unimpaired. "God is not mocked."(4) Let the chapters be
denied which they have often repudiated, and now at Ephesus have
sanctioned. Do not let them trick your holiness by their lies. They used to
praise my utterances at Antioch, being brethren, and when made readers, and
ordained deacons, presbyters and bishops; and at the end of my discourse
they used to embrace me and kiss me, on head, on breast, on hands; and some
of them would cling to my knees, calling my doctrine apostolic,--the very
doctrine that they have now condemned, and anathematized. They used to call
me luminary, not only of the East, but of the whole world, and now I
forsooth have been proscribed and, so far as lies in their power, I have
not even bread to eat. They have anathematized even all who converse with
me. But the man whom but a little while ago they deposed and called
Valentinian and Apollinarian they have honoured as a martyr of the faith,
rolling at his feet, asking his pardon and calling him spiritual father. Do
even woodlice change their colour to match the stones or chameleons their
skin to suit the leaves, as these men do their mind to match the times? I
give up to them see, dignity, rank, and all the luxury of this life. On the
side of the apostolic doctrines I await the evils which they deem terrible,
finding sufficient consolation in the thought of the judgment of the Lord.
For I hope that for the sake of this injustice the Lord will remit me many
of my sins.
Now I implore your holiness to beware of the fellowship of iniquity and
to insist on their repudiation of what has been done. If they refuse shun
them as traitors to the faith. That your reverence should wait awhile to
see if the tempest will pass, we have not thought subject for blame. But
after the ordination of the primate of the East(1) every man's mind will be
made manifest. Deign, Sir, to pray for me. At this time I am sorely in want
of that help that I may hold out against all that is being devised against
me.
CXLVIII in the Edition of Garnerius
is "the minute of the most holy bishop Cyril, delivered to Posidonius, when
sent by him to Rome, in the matter of Nestorius." (Cyrill. Ep. XI. tom.
lxxvii. 85.)
CXLIX is "Copy of the Letter written by John, bishop of Antioch, to
Nestorius."
This letter has sometimes been supposed to have been really composed by
Theodoret.(2)
CL. Letter of Theodoretus, bishop of Cyrus, to Joannes, bishop of
Antioch.(3)
I have been much distressed at reading the anathematisms which you have
sent to request me to refute in writing, and to make plain to all their
heretical sense. I have been distressed at the thought that one appointed
to the shepherd's office, entrusted with the charge of so great a flock and
appointed to heal the sick among his sheep, is both himself unsound, and
that to a terrible degree, and is endeavouring to infect his lambs with his
disease and treats the sheep of his folds with greater cruelty than that of
wild beasts. They, indeed, tear and rend the sheep that are dispersed and
separated from the flock; but be in its very midst, and while thought to be
its saviour and its guardian introduces secret error among the victims of
their confidence in him. Against an open assault it is possible to take
precautions, but when an attack is made in the guise of friendship, its
victim is found off his guard and hurt is easily done him. Hence foes who
make war from within are far more dangerous than those who attack from
without.
I am yet more grieved that it should be in the name of true religion
and with the dignity of a shepherd that he should give utterance to his
heretical and blasphemous words, and renew that vain and impious teaching
of Apollinarius which was long ago stamped out. Besides all this there is
the fact that he not only supports these views but even dares to
anathematize those who decline to participate in his blasphemies;--if he is
really the author of these productions and they have not proceeded from
some enemy of the truth who has composed them in his name and, as the old
story has it, flung the apple of discord(2) in the midst, and so fanned the
flame on high.
But whether this composition comes from himself or from some other in
his name, I, for my part, by the aid of the light of the Holy Ghost, in the
investigation of this heretical and corrupt opinion, according to the
measure of the power given me, have refuted them as best I could. I have
confronted them with the teaching of evangelists and apostles. I have
exposed the monstrosity of the doctrine, and proved how vast is its
divergence from divine truth. This I have done by comparing it with the
words of the Holy Spirit, and pointing out what strange and jarring discord
there is between it and the divine.
Against the hardihood of this anathematizing, thus much I will say,
that Paul, the clear-voiced herald of truth, anathematized those who had
corrupted the evangelic and apostolic teaching and boldly did so against
the angels, not against those who abided by the laws laid down by
theologians; these he strengthened with blessings, saying, "And as many as
walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and on the Israel
of God."(1) Let then the author of these writings reap from the Apostle's
curse the due rewards of his labours and the harvest of his seeds of
heresy. We will abide in the teaching of the holy Fathers.
To this letter I bare appended my counter arguments, that on reading
them you may judge whether I have effectively destroyed the heretical
propositions. Setting down each of the anathematisms by itself, I have
annexed the counter statement that readers may easily understand, and that
the refutation of the dogmas may he clear.(2)
CLI. Letter or address of Theodoret to the monks of the Euphratensian, the
Osrhoene, Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia.(3)
When I contemplate the condition of the Church at the present crisis
of affairs,--the tempest which has recently beset the holy ship, the
furious blasts, the beating of the waves, the deep darkness of the night,
and, besides all this, the strife of the mariners, the struggle going on
between oarsmen the drunkenness of the pilots, and, lastly, the untimely
action of the bad.--I bethink me of the laments of Jeremiah anti cry with
him, "my bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart, my heart maketh a
noise in me,"(4) and to put away despondency's great cloud by the drops
from my eyes, I have recourse to founts of tears. Amid a storm so wild it
is fitting that the pilots be awake, to battle wills the tempest, and take
heed for the safety of the ship: the sailors ought to cease from their
strife, and strive to undo the danger alike by prayer and skill: the
mariners ought to keep the peace, and quarrel neither with one another nor
with the pilots, but implore the Lord of the sea to banish the darkness by
His rod. No one now is willing to do anything of the kind; and, just as
happens in a night-engagement, we cannot recognise one another, we leave
our enemies alone, and waste our weapons against our own side; we wound our
comrades for foes, while all the while the bystanders laugh at our drunken
folly, enjoy our disasters, and are delighted to see us engaged in mutual
destruction. The responsibility for all this lies with those who have
striven to corrupt the apostolic faith, and have dared to add a monstrous
doctrine to the teaching of the Gospels; with them that have accepted the
impious "Chapters" which they have sent forth with anathematisms to the
imperial city, and have confirmed them, as they have imagined, by their own
signatures. But these "Chapters" have sprouted without doubt from the sour
root of Apollinarius; they are tainted with Arian and Eunomian error; look
into them carefully, and you will find that they are not clear of the
impiety of Manes and Valentinus.(1)
In his very first chapter he rejects the dispensation(2) which has been
made on our behalf, teaching that God the Word did not assume human nature,
but was Himself changed into flesh, thus laying down that the incarnation
took place not in reality but in semblance and seeming. This is the outcome
of the impiety of Marcion, Manes, and Valentinus.
In his second and third chapters, as though quite oblivious of what he
had stated in his preface, he brings in the hypostatic union, and a meeting
by natural union, and by these terms he represents that a kind of mixture
and confusion was effected of the divine nature and of the form of the
servant. This comes of the innovation of the Apollinarian heresy.
In his fourth chapter he denies the distinction of the terms of
evangelists and apostles, and refuses to allow, as the teaching of the
orthodox Father's has allowed, the terms of divine dignity to be understood
of the divine nature, while the terms of humility, spoken in human sense,
are applied to the nature assumed; whence the rightminded can easily detect
the kinship with impiety. For Arius and Eunomius, asserting the only
begotten Son of God to be a creature, and made out of the non-existent, and
a servant, have ventured to apply to His godhead what is said in lowly and
human sense; establishing by such means the difference of substance and the
unlikeness. Besides this, to be brief, he argues that the very impassible
and immutable Godhead of the Christ suffered, and was crucified, dead, and
buried. This goes beyond even the madness of Arius and Eunomius, for this
pitch of impiety has not been reached even by them that dare to call the
maker and creator of the universe a creature. Furthermore he blasphemes
against the Holy Ghost, denying that It proceeds from the Father, in
accordance with the word of the Lord, but maintaining that It has Its
origin of the Son. Here we have the fruit of the Apollinarian seed; here we
come near the evil husbandry of Macedonius. Such are the offspring of the
Egyptian, viler children of a vile father. This growth, which men,
entrusted with the healing of souls, ought to make abortive while yet in
the womb, or destroy as soon as it is born, as dangerous and deadly to
mankind, is cherished by these excellent persons, and promoted with great
energy, alike to their own ruin and to that of all who will listen to them.
We, on the contrary, earnestly desire to keep our heritage untouched; and
the faith which we have received, and in which we have been ourselves
baptized, and baptize others, we strive to preserve uninjured and
undefiled. We confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect
man, of a reasonable soul and body, was begotten of the Father before the
ages, as touching the Godhead; and in the last days for us men and our
salvation (was born) of the Virgin Mary; that the same Lord is of one
substance with the Father as touching the Godhead, and of one substance
with us as touching the manhood. For there was an union of two natures.
Wherefore we acknowledge one Christ, one Son, one Lord; but we do not
destroy the union; we believe it to have been made without confusion, in
obedience to the word of the Lord to the Jews, "Destroy this temple and in
three days I will raise it up."(1) If on the contrary there had been
mixture and confusion, and one nature was made out of both, He ought to
have said "Destroy me and in three days I shall be raised." But now, to
show that there is a distinction between God according to His nature, and
the temple, and that both are one Christ, His words are "Destroy this
temple and in three days I will raise it up," clearly teaching that it was
not God who was undergoing destruction, but the temple. The nature of this
latter was susceptible of destructions while the power of the former raised
what was being destroyed. Furthermore it is in obedience to the divine
Scriptures that we acknowledge the Christ to be God and man. That our Lord
Jesus Christ is God is asserted by the blessed evangelist John "In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was. God. He
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him
was not anything made that was made."(1) And again, "That was the true
light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."(2) And the Lord
Himself distinctly teaches us, "He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father.''(3) And "I and my Father are one''(4) and "I am in the Father and
the Father in me,''(5) and the blessed Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews
says "Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His
person, and upholding all things by the word of His power"(6) and in the
epistle to the Philippians "Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus; who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be
equal with God but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form
of a servant."(7) And in the Epistle to the Romans, "Whose are the fathers
and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed
for ever. Amen."(8) And in the epistle to Titus "Looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ."(9) And Isaiah exclaims "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be
called, Angel of great counsel, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,
powerful, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the Age to come."(10) And
again "In chains they shall come over and they shall fall unto thee. They
shall make supplication unto thee shying, surely God is in thee anti there
is none else, there is no God. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O
God of Israel, the Saviour."(11) The name Emmanuel, however, indicates both
God and man, for it is interpreted in the Gospel to mean "God with us,"(12)
that is to say "God in man," God in our nature. And the divine Jeremiah too
utters the prediction "This is our God and there shall none other be
accounted of in comparison with him. He hath found out all the way of
knowledge and hath given it unto Jacob His servant and to Israel His
beloved and afterward did He show Himself upon earth and conversed with
men."(1) And countless other passages might be found as well in the holy
gospels and in the writings of the apostles as in the predictions of the
prophets, setting forth that our Lord Jesus Christ is very God.
That after the Incarnation He is spoken of as Man our Lord Himself
teaches in His words to the Jews "Why go ye about to kill me?" "A man that
hath told you the truth."(2) And in the first Epistle to the Corinthians
the blessed Paul writes "For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead,"(3) and to show of whom he is speaking he
explains his words and says, "For as in Adam all die even so in Christ
shall all be made alive."(4) And writing to Timothy he says, "For there is
l one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."(5)
In the Acts in his speech at Athens "The times of this ignorance God winked
at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because He hath
appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by
that than whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all
men, in that He hath raised him from the dead."(6) And the blessed Peter
preaching to the Jews says, "Ye men of Israel, hear these words Jesus of
Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by Him in the midst of you,"(7) and the prophet Isaiah when
predicting the sufferings of the Lord Christ, whom but just before he had
called God, calls man in the passage "A man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief." "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows."(8) I
might have collected other consentient passages of holy Scripture and
inserted them in my letter had I not known yon to be practised in the
divine oracles as befits the man called blessed in the Psalms.(9) I now
leave the collection of evidence to your own diligence and proceed with my
subject.
We confess then that our Lord Jesus Christ is very God and very man. We
do not divide the one Christ into two persons, but we believe two natures
to be united without confusion. We shall thus be able without difficulty to
refute even the manifold blasphemy of the heretics: for many and various
are the errors of those who have rebelled against the truth, as we shall
proceed to point out. Marcion and Manes deny that God the Word assumed
human nature and do not believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a
Virgin. They say that God the Word Himself was fashioned in human form and
appeared as man rather in semblance than in reality.
Valentinus and Bardesanes admit the birth, but they deny the assumption
of our nature and affirm that the Son of God employed the Virgin as it were
as a mere conduit.
Sabellius the Libyan, Photinus, Marcellus the Galatian, and Paul of
Samosata say that a mere man was born of the Virgin, but openly deny that
the eternal Christ was God.
Arius and Eunomius maintain that God the Word assumed only a body of
the Virgin.
Apollinarius adds to the body an unreasonable soul, as though the
incarnation of God the Word had taken place not for the sake of reasonable
beings but of unreasonable, while the teaching of the Apostles is that
perfect man was assumed by perfect God, as is proved by the words "Who
being in the form of God took the form of a servant;"(1) for "form" is put
instead of "nature" and "substance" and indicates that having the nature of
God He took the nature of a servant.
When therefore we are disputing with Marcion, Manes and Valentinus, the
earliest inventors of impiety, we endeavour to prove from the divine
Scriptures that the Lord Christ is not only God but also man.
When, however, we are proving to the ignorant that the doctrine of
Arius, Eunomius and Apollinarius about the oeconomy is incomplete, we show
from the divine oracles of the Spirit that the assumed nature was perfect.
The impiety of Sabellius, Photinus, Marcellus, and Paulus, we refute by
proving by the evidence of divine Scripture that the Lord Christ was not
only man but also eternal God, of one substance with the Father. That He
assumed a reasonable soul is stated by our Lord Himself in the words "Now
is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour;
but for this cause came I unto this hour."(2) And again "My soul is
exceeding sorrowful even unto death."(3) And in another place "I have power
to lay down my soul (life A. V.) and I have power to take it again. No man
taketh it from me."(1) And the angel said to Joseph, "Take the young child
and His mother and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead which
sought the young child's soul (life A. V.)"(2) And the Evangelist says
"Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man." Now
what increases in stature and wisdom is not the Godhead which is ever
perfect, but the human nature which comes into being in time, grows, and is
made perfect.
Wherefore all the human qualities of the Lord Christ, hunger, I mean,
and thirst and weariness, sleep, fear, sweat, prayer, and ignorance, and
the like, we affirm to belong to our nature which God the Word assumed and
united to Himself in effecting our salvation. But the restitution of motion
to the maimed, the resurrection of the dead, the supply of loaves, and all
the other miracles we believe to be works of the divine power. In this
sense I say that the same Lord Christ both suffers and destroys suffering;
suffers, that is, as touching the visible, and destroys suffering as
touching the ineffably indwelling Godhead. This is proved beyond question
by the narrative of the holy evangelists, from whom we learn that when
lying in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes, He was announced by a
star, worshipped by magi and hymned by angels. Thus we reverent discern
that the swaddling bands and the want of a bed and all the poverty belonged
to the manhood; while the journey of the magi and the guiding of the star
and the company of the angels proclaim the Godhead of the unseen. In like
manner He makes His escape into Egypt and avoids the fury of Herod by
flight,(3) for He was man; but as the Prophet says "He shakes the idols of
Egypt,''(4) for He was by nature God. He is circumcised; He keeps the law;
and offers offerings of purification, because He sprang from the root of
Jesse. And, as man, He was under the law; and afterwards did away with the
law and gave the new covenant, because He was a lawgiver and had promised
by the prophets that He Himself would give it. He was baptized by John; and
this shews His sharing what is ours. He is testified to by the Father from
on high and is pointed out by the Spirit; this proclaims Him eternal. He
hungered; but He fed many thousands with five loaves; the latter is divine,
the former human. He thirsted and He asked for water; but He was the well
of life; the former of His human weakness, the latter of His divine power.
He fell asleep in the boat, but he put the tempest of the sea to sleep; the
former of His human nature, the latter of His efficient and creative power
which has gifted all things with their being. He was weary as he walked;
but He healed the halt and raised dead men from their tombs; the former of
human weakness, the latter of a power passing that of this world. He feared
death and He destroyed death; the former shows that He was mortal, the
latter that He was immortal or rather giver of life. "He was crucified," as
the blessed Paul says "through weakness.''(1) But as the same Paul says
"Yet He liveth by the power of God."(2) Let that word "weakness" teach us
that He was not nailed to the tree as the Almighty, the Uncircumscribed,
the Immutable and Invariable, but that the nature quickened by the power of
God, was according to the Apostle's teaching dead and buried, both death
and burial being proper to the form of the servant. "He broke the gates of
brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder"(3) and destroyed the power of
death and in three days raised His own temple. These are proofs of the form
of God in accordance with the Lord's words "Destroy this temple and in
three days I will raise it up."(4) Thus in the one Christ through the
sufferings we contemplate the manhood and through the miracles we apprehend
the Godhead. We do not divide the two natures into two Christs, and we know
that of the Father God the Word was begotten and that of the seed of
Abraham and David our nature was assumed. Wherefore also the blessed Paul
says when discoursing of Abraham "He saith not and to seeds as of many; but
as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ,"(5) and writing to Timothy he
says " Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the
dead according to my gospel."(6) And to the Romans he writes "Concerning
His son Jesus Christ ... which was made of the seed of David according to
the flesh."(7) And again "Whose are the fathers and of whom as concerning
the flesh Christ came." s And the Evangelist writes "The book of the
generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham,"(9) and
the blessed Peter in the Acts says David " being a prophet and knowing that
God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, He would
raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before spake of his
resurrection,"(1) and God says to Abraham "In thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed,"(2) and Isaiah " There shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of His roots; and
there shall rest upon Him a the spirit of wisdom and understanding the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of piety and the
spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him."(4) And a little further on
" And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an
ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and His rest shall be
glorious."(5)
From these quotations it is made plain that according to the flesh, the
Christ was descended from Abraham and David and was of the same nature as
theirs; while according to the Godhead He is Everlasting Son and Word of
God, ineffably and in superhuman manner begotten of the Father, and co-
eternal with Him as brightness and express image and Word. For as the word
in relation to intelligence and brightness in relation to light are
inseparably connected, so is the only begotten Son in relation to His own
Father. We assert therefore that our Lord Jesus Christ is only begotten,
and first born Son of God; only begotten both before the incarnation arid
after the incarnation, but firstborn after being born of the Virgin. For
the name first-born seems to be in a sense contrary to that of only
begotten, because the only Son begotten of any one is called only begotten,
while the eldest of several brothers is called first-born. The divine
Scriptures state God the Word alone to have been begotten of tile Father;
but the only begotten becomes also first-born, by taking our nature of the
Virgin, and deigning to call brothers those who have trusted in Him; so
that the same is only begotten in that He is God, first born in that He is
Man. Thus acknowledging the two natures we adore the one Christ and offer
Him one adoration, for we believe that the union took place from the moment
of the conception in the Virgin's holy womb. Wherefore also we call tile
holy Virgin both Mother of God(6) and Mother of man, since the Lord Christ
Himself is called God and man in the divine Scripture. The name Emmanuel
proclaims the union of the two natures. If we acknowledge the Christ to be
both God and Man and so call Him, who is so insensate as to shrink from
using the term "Mother of man" with that of " Mother of God"? For we use
both terms of the Lord Christ. For this reason the Virgin is honoured and
called "full of grace."(1) What sensible man then would object to name the
Virgin in accordance with the titles of the Saviour, when on His account
she is honoured by the faithful? For He who was born of her is not
worshipped on her account, but she is honoured with the highest titles on
account of Him Who was born from her.
Suppose the Christ to be God only, and to have taken the origin of His
existence froth the Virgin, then let the Virgin be styled and named only
"Mother of God" as having given birth to a being divine by nature. Bat if
the Christ is both God and man and was God from everlasting (inasmuch as He
did not begin to exist, being co-eternal with the Father that begat Him)
and in these last days was born man of His human nature, then let him who
wishes to define doctrine in both directions devise appellations for the
Virgin with the explanation which of them befits the nature and which the
union. But if any one should wish to deliver a panegyric and to compose
hymns, and to repeat praises, and is naturally anxious to use the most
august names; then, not laying down doctrine as in the former case, but
with rhetorical laudation, and expressing all possible admiration at the
mightiness of the mystery, let him gratify his heart's desire, let him
employ high names, let him praise and let him wonder. Many instances of
this kind are found in the writings of orthodox teachers. But on all
occasions let moderation be respected. All praise to him who said that
"moderation is best," although he is not of our herd.(2)
This is the confession of the faith of the Church; this is the doctrine
taught by evangelists and apostles. For this faith, by God's grace I will
not refuse to undergo many deaths. This faith we have striven to convey to
them that now err and stray, again and again challenging them to
discussion, and eager to show them the truth, but without success. With a
suspicion of their probably plain confutation, they have shirked the
encounter; for verily falsehood is rotten and yokefellow of obscurity.
"Every one," it is written "that doeth evil cometh not to the light lest
his deeds should be reproved"(1) by the light.
Since, therefore, after many efforts, I have failed in persuading them
to recognise the truth, I have returned to my own churches, filled at once
with sorrow and with joy; with joy on account of my own freedom from error;
and with sorrow at the unsoundness of my members. I therefore implore you
to pray with all your might to our loving Lord, and to cry unto Him, "
'Spare Thy people, 0 Lord and give not Thy heritage to reproach.'(2) Feed
us O Lord that we become not as we were in the beginning when Thou didst
not rule over us nor was Thy name invoked to help us. ' We are become a
reproach to our neighhours, a scorn and derision to them that are round
about us,'(3) because wicked doctrines have come into Thy inheritance. They
have polluted Thy holy temple in that the daughters of stranger's have
rejoiced over our troubles. A little while ago we were of one mind and one
tongue and now are divided into many tongues. But, 0 Lord our God, give us
Thy peace which we have lost by setting Thy commandments at naught. O Lord
we know none other than Thee. We call Thee by Thy name. ' Make both one and
break down tile middle wall of the partition,'(4) namely the iniquity that
has sprung up. Gather us one by one, Thy new Israel, building up Jerusalem
and gathering together the outcasts of Israel.(5) Let us be made once more
one flock(6) and all be fed by Thee; for Thou art the good Shepherd ' Who
giveth His life for the shoe .'(7) 'Awake, why sleepest Thou O Lord, arise
cast us not off forever.'(8) Rebuke the winds and the sea; give Thy Church
calm and safety from the waves."
These words and words like these I implore yon to utter to the God of
all; for He is good anti full of loving-kindness anti ever fulfils the will
of them that fear Him. He will therefore listen to your prayer, and will
scatter this darkness deeper than the plague of Egypt. He will give you His
own calm of love, and will gather them that are scattered abroad and
welcome them that have been cast out. Then shall be heard " the voice of
rejoicing and salvation in the tabernacles of the righteous."(1) Then shall
we cry unto Him we have been "glad according to the days wherein Thou hast
afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil,"(2) and you when you
have been granted your prayer shall praise Him in the words "Blessed be God
which not turned away my prayer nor His mercy from me."(3)
Proof that after the Incarnation our Lord Jesus Christ, was one Son.
The authors of slanders against me allege that I divide the one Lord Jesus
Christ into two sons. But so far am I from holding this opinion that I
charge with impiety all who dare to say so. For I have been taught. by the
divine Scripture to worship one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only
begotten Son of God, God the Word incarnate. For we confess the same to be
both God eternal, and made man in the last days for the sake of man's
salvation; but made man not by the change of the Godhead but by the
assumption of the manhood. For the nature of this godhead is immutable and
invariable, as is that of the Father who begat Him before the ages. And
whatever would be understood of the substance of the Father will also be
wholly found in the substance of the only begotten; for of that substance
He is begotten. This our Lord taught when the said to Philip "He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father "(4) and again in another place "All things
that the Father hath are mine,"(5) and elsewhere " I and the Father are
one,"(6) and very many other passages may be quoted setting forth the
identity of substance.
It follows that He did not become God: He was God. "In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God."(7) He was
not man: He became man, and the so became by taking on Him our nature: So
says the blessed Paid:--"Who being in the form of God thought it not
robbery to be equal with God, hut made Himself of no reputation, and took
upon Him the form of a servant."(8) And again: "For verily He took not on
Him the nature of angel's; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham."(9) And
again; Forasmuch then as the children are partaker's of flesh and blood, He
also Himself likewise took part of the same."(10) Thus He was both passible
and impassible; mortal and immortal; passible, on the one hand, and mortal,
as man; impassible, on the other, and immortal, as God. As God He raised
His own flesh, which was dead;--as His own words declare: "Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up."(1) And as man, He was
passible and mortal up to the time of the passion. For, after the
resurrection, even as man He is impassible, immortal, and incorruptible;
and He discharges divine lightnings; not that according to the flesh tie
has been changed into the nature of Godhead, but still preserving the
distinctive marks of humanity. Nor yet is His body uncircumscribed, for
this is peculiar to the divine nature alone, but it abides in its former
circumscription. This He teaches in the words He spake to the disciples
even after His resurrection "Behold my hands and feet that it is I myself;
handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me
have."(2) While He was thus beheld He went up into heaven; thus has He
promised to come again, thus shall He be seen both by them that have
believed and them that have crucified, for it is written "They shall look
on Him whom they pierced."(3) We therefore worship the Son, but we
contemplate in Him either nature in its perfection, both that which took,
and that which was taken; the one of God and the other of David. For this
reason also He is styled both Son of the living God and Son of David;
either nature receiving its proper title. Accordingly the divine scripture
calls him both God and man, and the blessed Paul exclaims "There is one
God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave
Himself a ransom for all."(4) But Him whom here he calls man in another
place he describes as God for he says "Looking for that blessed hope and
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."(5)
And yet in another place he uses both names at once saying "Of whom as
concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever.
Amen."(6)
Thus he has stated the same Christ to be of the Jews according to the
flesh, and God over all as God. Similarly the prophet Isaiah writes "A man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief. ... Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows,"(1) and shortly afterwards he says "Who shall
declare His generation?"(2) This is spoken not of man but of God. Thus
through Micah God says "Thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the
least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor
that shall rule my people Israel, whose goings forth have been as of old
from everlasting."(3) Now by saying "From thee shall come forth a ruler" he
exhibits the oeconomy of the incarnation; and by adding "whose goings forth
have been as of old from everlasting" he declares the Godhead begotten of
the Father before the ages.
Since we have been thus taught by the divine scripture, and have
further found that the teachers who have been at different periods
illustrious in the Church, are of the same opinion, we do our best to keep
our heritage inviolate; worshipping one Son of God, one God the Father, and
one Holy Ghost; but at the same time recognising the distinction between
flesh and Godhead. And as we assert them that divide our one Lord Jesus
Christ into two sons to trangress flora the road trodden by the holy
apostles, so do we declare the maintainers of the doctrine that the Godhead
of the only begotten and the manhood have been made one nature to fall
headlong into the opposite ravine. These doctrines we hold; these we
preach; for these we do battle.
The slander of the libellers that represent me as worshipping two sons
is refuted by the plain facts of the case. I teach all persons who come to
holy Baptism the faith put forth at Nicaea; and, when I celebrate the
sacrament of regeneration I baptize them that make profession of their
faith in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
pronouncing each name by itself. And when I am performing divine service in
the churches it is my wont to give glory to the Father and to the Son and
to the Holy Ghost; not sons, but Son. If then I uphold two sons, whether of
the two is glorified by me, and whether remains unhonoured? For I have not
quite come to such a pitch of stupidity as to acknowledge two sons and
leave one of them without any tribute of respect. It follows then even from
this fact that the slander is proved slander,--for I worship one only
begotten Son, God the Word incarnate. And I call the holy Virgin "Mother of
God"(4) because she has given birth to the Emmanuel, which means "God with
us."(1) But the prophet who predicted the Emmanuel a little further on has
written of him that "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and
the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name is called Angel of
great counsel, wonderful, counsellor, mighty God, powerful, Prince of
peace, Father of the age to come."(2) Now if the babe born of the Virgin is
styled "Mighty God," then it is only with reason that the mother is called
"Mother of God." For the mother shares the honour of her offspring, and the
Virgin is both mother of the Lord Christ as man, and again is His servant
as Lord and Creator and God.
On account of this difference of term He is said by the divine Paul to
be "without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life."(3) He is without father as touching His
humanity; for as man He was born of a mother alone. And He is without
mother as God, for He was begotten from everlasting of the Father alone.
And again He is without descent as God while as man He has descent. For it
is written "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David,
the son of Abraham."(4) His descent is also given by the divine Luke.(5) So
again, as God, He has no beginning of days for He was begotten before the
ages; neither has He an end of life, for His nature is immortal and
impassible. But as man He had both a beginning of days, for He was born in
the reign of Augustus Caesar, and an end of life, for He was crucified in
the reign of Tiberius Caesar. But now, as I have already said, even His
human nature is immortal; and, as He ascended, so again shall He come
according to the words of the Angel--"This same Jesus which is taken up
from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go
into Heaven."(6)
This is the doctrine delivered to us by the divine prophets; this is
the doctrine of the company of the holy apostles; this is the doctrine of
the great saints of the East and of the West; of the far-famed Ignatius,
who received his archpriesthood by the right hand of the great Peter, and
for the sake of his confession of Christ was devoured by savage beasts;(7)
and of the great Eustathius, who presided over the assembled council, and
on account of his fiery zeal for true religion was driven into exile.(1)
This doctrine was preached by the illustrious Meletius, at the cost of no
less pains, for thrice was he driven from his flock in the cause of the
apostles' doctrines;(2) by Flavianus,(3) glory of the imperial see; and by
the admirable Ephraim, instrument of divine grace, who has left us in the
Syriac tongue a written heritage of good things;(4) by Cyprian, the
illustrious ruler of Carthage and of all Libya, who for Christ's sake found
a death in the fire;(5) by Damasus, bishop of great Rome,(6) and by
Ambrose, glory of Milan, who preached and wrote it in the language of
Rome.(7)
The same was taught by the great luminaries of Alexandria, Alexander
and Athanasius, men of one mind, who underwent sufferings celebrated
throughout the world. This was the pasture given to their flocks by the
great teachers of the imperial city, by Gregory, shining friend and
supporter of the truth; by John, teacher of the world, by Atticus, their
successor alike in see and in sentiment.(8) By these doctrines Basil, great
light of the truth, and Gregory sprung from the same parents,(9) and
Amphilochius,(10) who from him received the gift of the high-priesthood,
taught their contemporaries, and have left the same to us in their writings
for a goodly heritage. Time would fail me to tell of Polycarp,(11) and
Irenaeus,(12) of Methodius(13) and Hippolytus,(14) and the rest of the
teachers of the Church. In a word I assert that I follow the divine oracles
and at the same time all these saints. By the grace of the spirit they
dived into the depths of God-inspired scripture and both themselves
perceived its mind, and made it plain to all that are willing to learn.
Difference in tongue has wrought no difference in doctrine, for they were
channels of the grace of the divine spirit, using the stream from one and
the same fount.
CLII. Report of the(bishops) of the East to the Emperor, giving information
of their proceedings, and explaining the cause of the delay in the arrival
of the bishop of Antioch.(1)
In obedience to the order of your pious letter we have journeyed to the
Ephesian metropolis. There we have found the affairs of the Church in
confusion, and disturbed by internecine war. The cause of this is that
Cyril of Alexandria and Memnon of Ephesus have handed together and mustered
a great mob of rustics, and have forbidden both the celebration of the
great feast of Pentecost, and the evening and morning offices.(2)
They have shut the sacred churches and martyrs' shrines; they have
assembled apart with the victims of their deceit; they have wrought
innumerable iniquities, trampling under foot alike the canons of the holy
Fathers, and your own decrees. And the action has been taken in face of the
order given both in writing and by word of mouth by the most excellent
count Candidianus,(3) envoy of your Christ-loving majesty, that the council
must await the arrival of the very holy bishops, coming from all quarters
of the Empire, and then and not till then formally assemble in obedience to
your piety's commands. Moreover Cyril of Alexandria had written to me, the
bishop of Antioch, two days before the meeting of their synod, that the
whole council was awaiting my arrival. We have therefore deposed both the
aforenamed, Cyril and Memnon, and have excluded them from all the services
of the church. The rest, who have participated in their iniquity, we have
excommunicated, until they shall reject and anathematize the Chapters(4)
issued by Cyril, which are full of the Eunomian and Arian heresies, and
shall, in obedience to your piety's command, assemble together with us, and
shall in an orderly manner and with all exactitude, together with
ourselves, examine into the questions at issue, and confirm the pious
doctrine of the holy Fathers.
As to the delay in my own arrival be it known to your piety that, in
consideration of the distance of the way by land,--and this was our route,-
-I have come very quickly, I have travelled forty stages without pausing to
rest on the way; so your Christian majesty may learn from the inhabitants
of the towns on the route. Besides this I was detained many days in Antioch
by the famine there; by the daily tumults of the people; and by the unusual
severity of the rainy season, which caused the torrents to swell, and
threatened danger to the town.
CLIII. Report of the same to the empresses Pulcheria and Eudoxia.
We had expected to be able to report to your pious majesties in
different terms, but we are now compelled to make known to you the
following facts, forced as we are by the irregular exercise of despotic
power by Cyril of Alexandria and Memnon of Ephesus. The proper course to
have been pursued, in accordance with the laws of the Church, and the
command of your pious majesties, would have been to wait for the arrival of
the godly bishops on the road, and in common with them to examine into the
questions at issue concerning the true faith, and investigate the point
offered for discussion, and, after exact enquiry, to confirm the doctrines
of the apostles. They had written to me that they would wait for our
arrival. They heard that we were only three stages off. Then they assembled
an unconstitutional council by themselves, and have ventured on proceedings
iniquitous, irregular, and bristling with absurdities. And this they have
done though the most honourable count Candidianus, sent by your pious and
Christian majesties for good order's sake, expressly charged them, alike in
writing and by word of mouth, to wait for the arrival of the godly bishops
who had been convened, and to attempt no innovation on the true faith, but
to take their stand on the directions of our godly-minded sovereigns. Now
in spite of their having heard the imperial letter and the advice of the
most honourable count Candidianus, they have nevertheless made naught of
due order. As the prophet says "They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the
spider's web; and he that would eat of their eggs when he breaks them
findeth rottenness, and therein is a viper,"(1) Wherefore we confidently
cry "Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover
themselves with their works. "(2)
They have shut the churches and the martyrs' shrines; they have
forbidden the celebration of the holy feast of Pentecost; besides this they
have sent the minions of their disorderly despotism into bishops' private
houses, uttering shocking threats, and forcing them to affix their
signatures to illegal acts. We therefore considering all their preposterous
conduct, have deposed the aforenamed Cyril and Memnon, and deprived them of
their episcopate. Their associates in irregularity, whether influenced by
sycophancy or by fear, we have excommunicated, until, coming to a knowledge
of their own wounds, they shall heartily repent, shall anathematize the
heretical Chapters of Cyril, which are tainted with the heresy of
Apollinarius, Arius, and Eunomius, shall recover the faith of the Fathers
in Council at Nicaea, and, in obedience to the pious commands of our
Christian sovereigns, shall, peacefully and without any tumult, assemble in
synod, be willing to examine with care the questions submitted to them, and
honestly protect the purity of the faith of the Gospel.
CLIV. Report of the same to the Senate of Constantinople.(1)
CLV. Letter of John, bishop of Antioch and his supporters, to the clergy of
Constantinople.(2)
CLVI. Letter of the same to the people of Constantinople.(3)
CLVII. Report of the Council of (the bishops of) the East to the victorious
Emperor, announcing a second time the deposition of Cyril and of Memnon.(4)
Your piety, which shines forth for the good of the empire and of the
churches of God, has commanded us to assemble at Ephesus, in order to bring
about peace and gain for the Church, rather than to confuse and disturb it.
And the commands of your majesty plainly and distinctly indicate your pious
and peaceful intentions for the churches of Christ. But Cyril of
Alexandria, a man, it would seem, born and bred for the bane of the
churches, after taking into partnership the audacity of Memnon of Ephesus,
has first of all transgressed against your quieting and pious decree, and
has so shewed his general depravity. Your majesty had ordered an
investigation and careful testing to be made concerning the faith, and that
with the consent and concord of all. Cyril, challenged, or rather himself
convicting himself, on the count of the Apollinarian doctrines, by means of
the letter which he lately sent to the imperial city, with anathematisms,
whereby he is convicted of sharing the views of the impious and heretic
Apollinarius, pays no heed to this condition of things, and, as though we
were living with no emperor to govern us, is proceeding to every kind of
lawlessness. He ought himself to be called to account for his unsound
opinion about our Lord Jesus Christ; but, usurping an authority given him
neither by the canons, nor by your edicts, he is hurrying headlong into
every kind of disorder and illegality.
Moved by these things the holy Synod, which has refused to accept his
devices for the damage of the faith, for the aforesaid reasons deposes him.
It deposes Memnon also, who has been his counsellor and abettor through
all, who has kept up constant agitation against the very holy bishops for
refusing to assent to his pernicious heterodoxy; who has shut the churches
and every place of prayer, as if we were living among the heathen and the
enemies of God; who has brought in the Ephesian mob, so that every day we
are in supreme danger, while we look not to defence, but heed the right
doctrines of true religion. For the destruction of these men is identical
with the establishment of orthodoxy.
From his own Chapters your majesty can have no difficulty in perceiving
his impious mind. He is convicted of trying, so to say, to raise from Hades
the impious Apollinarius, who died in his heresy, and of attacking the
churches and the orthodox faith. He is shewn in his publications to
anathematize at once evangelists and apostles and them that succeeded them
as forefathers of the Church, who, moved not by their own imaginations, but
by the holy Spirit, have preached the true faith, and proclaimed the
gospel; a faith and gospel indeed opposed to what this man holds and
teaches and by inculcating which he wishes to give his own private iniquity
the mastery of the world. Since this is intolerable to us we have followed
the proper course, relying at once on the divine grace and on your
majesty's good will.
We know that you give to nothing higher honour than to the sacred faith
in which both you and your thrice blessed forefathers have been brought up.
From them you have received the perpetual sceptre of empire, ever putting
down the opponents of the apostolic doctrines. Such an opponent is the
aforesaid Cyril, who, with the aid of Memnon, has captured Ephesus as he
might some fortress, and justly shares with his ally the sentence of
deposition. Justly: for, besides all that has been said, they have boldly
tried every means of assault and every violence against us, who, to come
together in council in ratification of your edict, have disregarded every
claim of home and country and self.
We are now the prey of tyranny, unless your piety intervene and order
us to assemble in some other place, near at hand, where we shall be able,
from the scriptures, and from the writings of the Fathers, to refute beyond
contradiction both Cyril and the victims of his ingenuity. We have
mercifully expelled these men from communion with the suggested hope of
salvation in case they should repent; although, as if on some campaign of
uncivilized soldiery, they have up to this moment furnished him with the
means of his illegality. Some were deposed long ago, and have been restored
by Cyril. Some have been excommunicated by their own metropolitans, and
admitted by him again into communion. Others have been impaled on various
accusations, and have been promoted by him to honour. All through, the main
motive of his action has been the endeavour to achieve his heretical
purpose by the force of numbers, for he does not reckon as he ought that in
what relates to true religion, it is not numbers that are required, but
rather correctness of doctrine and the truth of the doctrine of the
apostles. Men are needed who are competent to establish these points not by
audacity and masterful self-assertion but by pious use of apostolic
testimony and example.
For all these reasons we beseech and implore your majesty to bear
prompt aid to assaulted truth, and to remedy without delay these men's
masterful readiness; for, like a hurricane, it is sweeping the less
moderate among us into pernicious heresy. Your piety has had care for the
churches in Persia and among the barbarians; it is only right that you
should not neglect those which are tossed by the storm within the
boundaries of the Roman empire.
CLVIII. Report of(the bishops of) the East to the very pious emperor, which
delivered with the preceding. Report to the right honourable count
Irenoeus.
On receiving the letter of your piety we entertained hopes that the
Egyptian storm which has lately struck the churches of God would be driven
away. But we have been disappointed. Those men have been made even yet more
daring by their madness; they have given no heed to the sentence of
deposition justly and in due forth passed upon them, nor have become any
more moderate in consequence of the rebuke of your majesty. They have
trampled down alike the laws of your piety, and the canons of the holy
Fathers, and, some of them being deposed and some excommunicated, keep
festivals, and celebrate communion, in Houses of Prayer. And we, as we have
already informed your Christ-loving majesty, on the receipt of your
clemency's kindly letter, though our only desire was to pray in the church
of the Apostles, have not only been prevented, but actually stoned, and
chased for a considerable distance, so that we were compelled to effect our
safety by flight at full speed. Our opponents on the contrary think that
they may act just as they please. They have declined to make investigation
of the questions at issue, and to undertake the defence of Cyril's
heretical Chapters, rejecting the plain proofs of the impiety which they
contain. They are impudent from mere impudence, while the examination of
the questions before us requires not impudence, but calmness, knowledge,
and skill in matters of doctrine.
Under these circumstances we have been under the necessity of sending
forward the most honourable Count Irenaeus, to approach your piety, and to
explain the position of affairs. He has accurate information concerning all
that has occurred, and has learned from us many modes of cure, whereby it
may be possible to bring about the restoration of tranquillity to the holy
churches of God. We beseech your clemency to grant him patient audience,
and to give orders for the prompt carrying out of whatever measures may
seem good to your piety, that we be not here crushed beyond all endurance.
CLIX. Letter of the same to the Proefect and to the Master.(1)
CLX. Letter of the same to the Governor and Scholasticus.(2)
CLXI. Report presented to the Emperor by John, archbishop of Antioch and
his supporters through Palladius Magistrianus.(3)
CLXII. Letter of Theodoretus to Andreas, bishop of Samosata, written from
Ephesus.(1)
Writing from Ephesus I salute your holiness, I congratulate you on your
infirmity, and deem you dear to God, in that you have known what evil deeds
have been going on here by report, and not by personal experience. Evil
indeed! They transcend all imagination and all incidents of history; they
compel a continual downpour of tears. The body of the Church is in peril of
dismemberment;--nay, rather I may say it has received the first incision;--
unless the wise Healer restore and re-connect the unsound and severed
limbs. Once again the Egyptian is raging against God, and warring with
Moses and Aaron His servants, and the more part of Israel are on the side
of the foe; for all too few are the sound who willingly suffer for true
religion's sake. Ancient principles are trodden under foot. Deposed men
perform priestly functions, and they who have deposed them sit sighing at
home. Men excommunicated by the same sentence as the deposed have relieved
the deposed of their deposition of their own free will. Such is the mockery
of a synod held by Egyptians, by Palestinians, by men from the Pontic and
Asian dioceses, and by the West in their company.(2)
What players in a pantomime, in the days of paganism, even in any farce
so held up religion to ridicule? Indeed what farce-writer ever performed
such a play? What dramatist ever wrote so sad a tragedy? Such and so great
are the troubles that have beset God's Church, whereof I have narrated but
a very small part.
CLXIII. First Letter of the Commissioners of the East, sent to Chalcedon,
among whom was Theodoretus.(3)
On our arrival at Chalcedon, for neither we ourselves nor our opponents
were permitted to enter Constantinople, on account of the seditions of the
excellent monks, we heard that eight days before we had appeared (behold
the glory of the most pious prince) the lord Nestorius was dismissed from
Ephesus, free to go where he would; whereat we are much distressed, since
verily deeds done illegally and informally now seem to have some force. Let
your holiness however be assured that we shall eagerly join the battle for
the Faith, and are willing to fight even unto death. To-day, the 11th of
the month Gorpiaeum,(1) we are expecting our very pious Emperor to cross
over to the Rufinianum,(2) and there to hear the trial.
We therefore beg your holiness to pray the Lord Christ to help us to be
able to con firm the faith of the holy Fathers, and to pluck up by the
roots these Chapters which have sprouted to the damage of the Church. We
implore your holiness to think and act with us, and to abide in your ready
devotion to the orthodox faith. When this letter was written the lord
Himerius(3) had not yet met us, being peradventure hindered on the road.
But do not let this trouble you. Only let your piety strenuously support
us, and we trust that gloom will disappear, and the truth shine forth.
CLXIV. Second Epistle of the same to the same, expressing premature triumph
in victory.(4)
Through the prayers of your holiness our most pious prince has granted
us an audience, anti by God's grace we have got the better of our
opponents, as all our views have been accepted by the most Christ-loving
emperor. The reports of others were read, and what seemed unfit to be
received, and had no further importance, he rejected. They were full of
Cyril, and petitioned that he might be summoned to give an account of
himself. So far they have not prevailed, but have heard discourses on true
religion, that is on the system of the Faith, and that the faith of the
blessed Fathers was confirmed. We further refuted Acacius(5) who had laid
down in his Commentaries that the Godhead is possible. At this our pious
emperor was so shocked at the enormity of the blasphemy that he flung off
his mantle, and stepped back. We know that the whole assembly welcomed us
as champions of true religion.
It has seemed good to our most pious emperor that anyone should explain
his own views, and report them to his piety. We have replied that it is
impossible for us to make any other exposition than that made by the
blessed Fathers at Nicaea, and so it has pleased his majesty. We therefore
offered the form subscribed by your holiness. Moreover, the whole
population of Constantinople is continually coming out to us to implore us
to fight manfully for the Faith. We do our best to restrain them, to avoid
giving offence to our opponents. We have sent a copy of the expositing,
that two copies may be made, and you may subscribe them both.
CLXV. Letter of the same to the same.(1)
To the very pious bishops now in Ephesus: Johannes, Himerius, Paulus,
Apringius, Theodoretus, greeting. For the fifth time an audience has been
granted us. We entered largely into the question of the heretical Chapters,
and swore again and again to the very pious emperor that it was, impossible
for us to hold communion with our opponents unless they rejected the
Chapters. We pointed out moreover that even if Cyril did abjure his
Chapters he could not be received by us, because he had become the
heresiarch of so impious a heresy. Nevertheless we gained no ground,
because our adversaries were urgent, and their hearers could neither
restrain them in their insolent endeavour, nor compel them to come to
enquiry and argument. They thus evade the investigation of the Chapters,
and allow no discussion concerning them. We, however, as you entreat, are
ready to insist to the death. We refuse to receive Cyril and his Chapters;
we will not admit these
men to Communion till the improper additions to the Faith be rejected. We
therefore implore your holiness to continue to show at once our mind and
our efforts. The battle is for true religion; for the only hope we have,--
on account of which we look forward to enjoying, in the world to
come, the loving-kindness of our Saviour. As to the very pious and holy
bishop Nestorius, be it known to your piety that we have tried to introduce
a word about him, but have hitherto failed, because all are ill-affected
toward him. We will notwithstanding do our best, though this is so, to take
advantage of any opportunity that may offer, and of the goodwill of the
audience, to carry out this purpose, God helping us. But that your holiness
may not be ignorant of this too, know that we, seeing that the partisans of
Cyril have deceived everyone by domineering, cheating, flattering, and
bribing, have more than once besought the very pious emperor and most noble
princes both to send us back to the East, and let your holiness go home.
For we are beginning to learn that we are wasting time in vain, without
nearing our end, because Cyril everywhere shirks discussion, in his
conviction that the blasphemies published in his Twelve Chapters can be
openly refuted. The very pious emperor has determined, after many
exhortations, that we all go every one to his own home, and that, further,
both the Egyptian and Memnon of Ephesus are to remain in their own places.
So the Egyptian will be able to go on blindfolding by bribery. The one,
after crimes too many to tell, is to return to his diocese. The other, an
innocent man, is barely permitted to go home. We and all here salute you
and all the brotherhood with you.
CLXVI. First petition of the commissioners, addressed from Chalcedon, to
the Emperor.
It had been much to be desired that the word of true religion should
not be adulterated by ridiculous explanations, and least of all by men who
have obtained the priesthood and high office in the churches, and who have
been induced, we know not how, by ambition, by lust of authority, and by
certain poor promises, to despise all the commandments of Christ. Their
only motive has been the desire to pay court to a man who has the
presumption to hope that he and his abettors will be able to manage the
whole business with success; I mean Cyril of Alexandria. Of his own
frivolity he has intruded into the holy churches of God heretical doctrines
which he believes himself able to support by argument. He expects to escape
the chastisement of sinners by the sole help of Memnon and the bishops of
the aforesaid conspiracy.
We are lovers of silence; in general we advise a philosophic course of
action. Now, however, sensible that to be silent and to cultivate
philosophy would be to throw away the Faith, we turn in supplication to you
who, next to the Goodness on high, are the sole preserver of the world. We
know that it specially belongs to you to be anxious for true religion, as
having, up to this present day, continually protected it, and being in turn
protected by it.
We beg you therefore to receive this treatise, as though our defence
were to be pleaded in the presence of the most holy God; not because we are
less active in the sacred cause, but because we are devoted to true
religion, and are speaking in its behalf. For in Christian times the clergy
have no more bounden duty than to bear testimony before so faithful a
prince, however ready we might have been to yield our bodies and to lay
down our lives a thousand times in the battle for the faith. We therefore
beseech you by God who seeth all things, by our Lord Jesus Christ who will
judge all men in righteousness, by the Holy Ghost by whose grace you hold
your empire, and by the elect angels who are your guardians and whom one
day you shall see standing by the awful throne, and ceaselessly offering
unto God that dread doxology which it is now sought to corrupt; we beseech
your piety, besieged as you now are by the craftiness of certain men who
are forbidding access to you, and are supporting the introduction into the
faith of heretical Chapters, utterly at variance with sound doctrine, and
tainted with heresy, to order all who subscribe them, or assent to them,
and wish, after your promised pardon, to dispute further, to come forth and
submit to the discipline of the Church. Nothing, sir, is more worthy of an
emperor than to fight for the truth, for which you hurried to join battle
with Persians and other barbarians, when Christ granted you to win fair
victories in acknowledgment of your zeal towards Him. We beseech you that
the questions at issue may be put before your piety in writing, for thus
their purport will be more easily perceived, and the transgressors will be
convicted for all future time. If however anyone, heedless of the
utterances for which he shall be at fault, shall wish by his teaching to
prevail over the right faith, it will be the part of your justice and
judgment to consider whether the very name of teachers has not been thrown
away by men who are reluctant to run any risks concerning the doctrines
which they introduce, refusing to be obedient to your orders, that they may
escape conviction for having done wrong; nor reckoning them worth
refutation, that their mutual conspiracy be not proved fruitless. For now
it is clear, from those that have been ordained by them that some of them,
in return for this impiety, have bethought them of obliging certain persons
by the concession of dignities and have devised certain other means. This
will become still more clear; and your piety will soon see that they will
distribute the rewards of their treachery, as though they were the spoils
of the faith of Christ.
But we, of whom some were long ago ordained by the very pious Juvenal,
bishop of Jerusalem, have kept silence, although it was our duty to contend
for the canon, that we might not seem to be troubled for our own
reputation's sake. We are now perfectly well aware of his active trickery
through Phoenicia Secunda and Arabia. We really have not time to attend to
such things. We are men who have preferred rather to be deprived of the
very places of which the ministry has been entrusted to us, and so of our
life, than of our ready zeal for the faith. To the attempts of those men we
will oppose the sentence of God and of your piety.
Now also we beg that true religion may be your one and primary care,
and that the brightness of orthodoxy, which at length with difficulty
blazed forth in the days of Constantine of holy name, was maintained by
your blessed grandfather and father, and was extended by your majesty among
the Persians and other barbarians, be not allowed to grow dim in the very
innermost courts of your imperial palace, or, in your serenity's days, to
be dispersed.
You will not send, sir, a divided Christianity into Persia; nor here at
home will there be anything great, while we are distressed by disputes, and
while there is no one existing on their side to settle them; no one will
take part in a divided Word and Sacraments; no one without loss of faith
will cut himself off from such famous fathers and saints who have never
been condemned. No imperial successes will be permitted to a people at
variance among themselves; a burst of derision will be roused from the
enemies of true religion; and all the other noxious consequences of their
malignant controversy are too numerous to reckon.
If there is anyone who thinks little of the science of theology, let
that one be any one in the world rather than he to whom the Lord has given
the supreme government of the world. Our petition is that your piety will
give judgment, for God will guide your intelligence into exact
comprehension. Finally, should this be impracticable (and all the
engagements of your piety we cannot know) we beseech your serenity to give
us leave to travel safely home. We are aware that to the dioceses entrusted
to us cause of offence is given by so protracted a delay, on account of
those men who even in sacred matters look out for opportunities of
dissension whence no advantage can be derived.
CLXVII. Second petition of the same, sent from Chalcedon to Theodosius
Augustus.
Your piety has been informed on several occasions, both by ourselves in
person and by our emissaries, that the doctrine of the true faith seems to
stand in danger of being corrupted, and that the body of the Church is
apparently being rent asunder by men who are turning everything upside
down, trampling upon all church order, and all imperial law, and throwing
everything into confusion that they may confirm the heresy propounded by
Cyril of Alexandria. For when we were first summoned by your piety to
Ephesus, to enquire into the question which had arisen and to confirm the
evangelic and apostolic faith laid down by the holy Fathers, before the
arrival of all the bishops who had been convened, the holders of their own
private Council confirmed in writing the heretical Chapters, which are at
one with the impiety of Arius, Eunomius and Apollinarius. Some they
deceived; some they terrified; others already charged with heresy, they
received into communion; and others who had not communicated with them were
bribed into so doing; others again were fired with the hope of dignities
for which they were unfit; so these men gathered round them a great crowd
of adherents, as though they had no idea that true religion is shewn not by
numbers, but by truth.
The dispatch of your piety was read a second time by the most
honourable Count Candidianus, ordering that the questions recently raised
be examined in a quiet and brotherly manner. When however all the pious
bishops were assembling, the reading had no effect.
Then came the noble Palladius Magistrianus, bringing another dispatch
froth your majesty, to the effect that all enactments passed privately and
apart must be rescinded that the Council must be assembled afresh and the
true doctrine ratified; but, as usual this your pious mandate was treated
with contempt by these unscrupulous persons.
Then again arrived the right honourable Master John, at that time
"Comes Largitionum," bringing another pious letter to the effect that the
depositions of the three had been decreed, that the offences which had
sprung up were to be removed, and the faith laid down at Nicaea by the holy
and blessed Fathers was to be ratified by all. As usual these universal
mockers transgressed this law too.
For after hearing the letter they did not change their mode of action;
they held communion with the deposed; spoke of them as bishops, and refused
to allow the Chapters, which had been propounded to the loss and corruption
of the pious faith to be rejected; notwithstanding their having been
frequently summoned by us to discussion. For we had ready to hand a plain
refutation of the heretical Chapters.
In evidence of these statements we have the right honourable Master,
who when both sides had been summoned a third and a fourth time, not
venturing to make this conduct an excuse on account of their disobedience,
thought it worth while to summon us hither.
We came at once; on our arrival we allowed ourselves no rest making our
petition, both before your piety and before the illustrious assembly, that
they would take up the quarrel for the Chapters and enter into discussion
concerning them, or on the other hand reject them as contrary to the right
faith, abiding by the faith as laid clown by the blessed fathers in council
at Nicaea.
They refused to do anything of the kind; they persisted in their
heretical procedure; yet they were allowed to attend the churches, and to
perform their priestly functions. We, however, alike at Ephesus and here,
have been for a long time deprived of communion; alike there and here we
have undergone innumerable perils; and while we were being stoned and all
but slain by slaves dressed up as monks, we took it all for the best, as
willingly enduring such treatment in the cause of the truth.
Afterwards it seemed good to your majesty that we and the opposite
party should assemble once again, that the recalcitrant might be compelled
to examine the doctrines. While we were waiting for this to come to pass
your piety set out for the city, and ordered the very men who were being
accused of heresy and had been therefore some of them deposed by us, and
others excommunicated and thereafter to be subjected to the discipline of
the Church, to come to the city and perform priestly functions, and
ordain.(1) We however who in the cause of true religion have undertaken a
struggle so tremendous; we who have shrunk from no peril in our battle for
right doctrine, have neither been bidden to enter the city to serve the
cause of the imperilled Faith and strive for orthodoxy; nor have we been
permitted to return home;(2) but here we are in Chalcedon distressed and
groaning for the Church oppressed by schism.
Wherefore since we are in receipt of no reply we have thought it
necessary to inform your piety by this present letter, before God and
Christ and the Holy Ghost, that if any one shall have been ordained (before
the settlement of right doctrines) by these men of heretical opinions, he
must necessarily be cut off from the whole church, as well from the clergy
as the dissentient laity. For none of the pious will endure that communion
be granted to heretics, and their own salvation be nullified.
And when this shall have come to pass, then your piety shall be
compelled to act against your will. For the schism will grow beyond all
expectation, and thereby the champions of true religion will be saddened,
unable to endure the loss of their own souls, and the establishment of
those impious doctrines of Cyril which the contentious are desirous of
defending.
Many indeed of the supporters of true religion will never allow the
acceptance of Cyril's doctrines; we shall never allow it, who all are of
the diocese of the East of your province, of the diocese of Pontus, of
Asia, of Thrace, of Illyricum and of the Italies, and who also sent to your
piety the treatise of the most blessed Ambrose, written against this
nascent superstition.
To avoid all this, and the further troubling of your piety, we beg,
beseech, and implore you to issue an edict that no ordination take place
before the settlement of the orthodox faith, on account of which we have
been convened by your Christ-loving highness.
CLXVIII. Third demand of the same, addressed from Chalcedon to the
sovereigns.
We never expected the summons of your piety to meet with this result.
We were honourably convoked, as priests by prince; we were convoked to
ratify the faith of the holy Fathers; and therefore, in due obedience to a
pious prince, we came. On our arrival we were no less faithful to the
Church, not less respectful to your edict. From the day of our arrival at
Ephesus till the present moment we have without intermission followed your
behests.
As it seems, however, our moderation, in these times, has not been of
the slightest use to us; nay, rather, so far as we can see, it has stood
very much in our way. We indeed who have thus behaved have been up to the
present time detained in Chalcedon; and now we are told that we may go
home. They however who have thrown everything into confusion, who have
filled the world with tumult, who are striving to rend churches in twain,
and who are the open assailants of true religion, perform priestly
functions, crowd the churches, and as they imagine have authority to
ordain, though in truth it is illegally claimed by them, stir up seditions
in the church, and what ought to be spent upon the poor they throw away
upon their bullies.
But you are not only their emperor; you are ours too. For no small
portion of your empire is the East, wherein the right faith has ever shone,
and, besides, the other provinces and dioceses from which we have been
convened.
Let not your majesty despise the faith which is being corrupted, in
which you and your forefathers have been baptized; on which the Church's
foundations are laid; for which most holy martyrs have rejoiced to suffer
countless kinds of death; by aid of which you have vanquished barbarians
and destroyed tyrants; which you are needing now in your war for the
subjugation of Africa. For on your side will fight the God of all if you
struggle on behalf of His holy doctrines and forbid the dismemberment of
the body of the church: for dismembered it will be if the opinion prevail
which Cyril has introduced into the Church and other heretics have
confirmed.
To these truths we have often already borne testimony before God both
in Ephesus and in this place. I have furnished information to your
holiness, giving an account as before the God of all. For this is required
of us, as is taught in the divine Scripture both by prophets and apostles;
as says the blessed Paul "I give thee charge in the sight of God, who
quickeneth the dead, and of Lord Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate
witnessed a good confession;"(1) and as God charged Ezekiel to announce to
the people, adding threats and saying, "when thou givest him not warning,
his blood will I require at thine hand."(2)
In awe of this sentence, once again we inform your majesty that they
who have been permitted to hold churches, and who teach the doctrines of
Apollinarius, Arius, and Eunomius, perform all sacred functions irregularly
and in violation of the canons, and destroy the souls of all who approach
them; if, indeed, any shall be found willing to listen to them. For by the
grace of God whose Providence is over all, and who wishes all men to be
saved, the more part of the people is sound, and warmly attached to pious
doctrines. It is on their account that we grieve.
And in our anguish and alarm lest the plague creeping on by little and
little should attack more, and the evil become general, we thus instruct
your serenity, and continue to give you exhortation; we implore your
majesty to yield to our prayers and to prohibit any addition to be made to
the Faith of the holy Fathers assembled in council at Nicaea.
And if after this our entreaty your piety reject this doctrine, which
was given in the presence of God, we will shake off the dust of our feet
against you, and cry with the blessed Paul, "We are pure from your
blood."(1) For we cease not night and day from the moment of our arrival at
this distinguished council to bear witness to prince, nobles, soldiers,
priests and people, that we hold fast the Faith delivered to us by the
Fathers.
CLXIX. Letter written by Theodoretus, bishop of Cyrus, from Chalcedon to
Alexander of Hierapolis.(2)
We have left no means untried, of courtesy, of sternness, of entreaty,
of eloquence before the most pious emperor, and the illustrious assembly,
testifying before God who sees all things and our Lord Jesus Christ who
shall judge the world in justice,(3) and the Holy Spirit and his elect
angels, lest the Faith be despised which is now being corrupted by the
maintainers and bold subscribers of heretical doctrines: and that charge be
given for it to be laid down in the same terms as at Nicaea and for the
"ejection of the heresy introduced to the loss and ruin of true religion.
Up to this time however we have produced not the slightest effect, our
hearers being carried now in one direction and now in another.
Nevertheless all these difficulties have not been able to deter me from
urging my point, but by God's grace I have pressed on. I have even stated
to our pious emperor with an oath that it is perfectly impossible for Cyril
and Memnon to be reconciled with me, find that we can never communicate
with any one who has not previously repudiated the heretical Chapters. This
then is our mind. The object of men who "seek their own not the things
which are Jesus Christ's"(1) is to be reconciled with them against our
will. But this is no business of mine, for God weighs our motives and tries
our character, nor does He inflict chastisement for what is done against
our will. Be it known to your holiness that if ever I said a word about our
friend(2) either before the very pious emperor or the illustrious assembly,
I was at once branded as a rebel. So intensely is he hated by the court
party. This is most annoying. The most pious emperor, especially, cannot
bear to hear his name mentioned and says publicly "Let no one speak to me
of this man." On one occasion he gave an instance of this to me.
Nevertheless as long as I am here I shall not cease to serve the interests
of this our father, knowing that the impious have done him wrong.
My desire is that both your piety and I myself get quit of this. No
good is to be hoped from it, in as much as all the judges trust in gold,
and contend that the nature of the Godhead and manhood is one.
All the people however by God's grace are in good case, and constantly
come out to us. I have begun to discourse to them and have celebrated very
large communions.
On the fourth occasion I spoke at length about the faith and they
listened with such delight that they did not go away till the seventh hour
but held out even till the midday heat. An enormous crowd was gathered in a
great court, with four verandahs, and I preached from above from a platform
near the roof.
All the clergy with the excellent monks are on the contrary utterly
opposed to me, so that when we came back from the Rufinianum, after the
visit of the very pious emperor, stone throwing began and many of my
companions were wounded, by the people and false monks.
The very pious emperor knew that the mob was gathered against me and
coining up to me alone he said, "I know that you are assembling
improperly." Then, said I, "As you have allowed me to speak hear me with
favour. Is it fair for excommunicated heretics to be doing duty in
churches, while I. who am fighting for the Faith and am therefore excluded
by others from communion, am not allowed to enter a church?" He replied
"What am I to do?" I said, "What your comes largitionum did at Ephesus.
When he found that some were assembling, but that we were not assembling,
he stopped them saying, 'If you are not peaceful I will allow neither party
to assemble.' It would have become your piety also to have given directions
to the bishop here to forbid both the opposite party and ourselves to
assemble before our meeting together to make known your righteous sentence
to all." To this he replied "It is not for me to order the bishop;" and I
answered "Neither shall you command us, and we will take a church, and
assemble. Your piety will find that there are many more on our side than on
theirs." In addition to this I pointed out that we had neither reading of
the holy Scripture, nor oblation; but only "prayer for the Faith and for
your majesty, and pious conversation." So he approved, and made no further
prohibition. The result is that increased crowds flock to us, and gladly
listen to our teaching. I therefore beg your piety to pray that our case
may have an issue pleasing to God. I am in daily danger, suspecting the
wiles of both monks and clergy, as I witness alike their influence and
their negligence.
CLXX. Letter of certain Easterns, who had been sent to Constantinople, to
Bishop Rufus.
To our most godly and holy fellow-minister Rufus, Joannes, Himerius,
Theodoretus, and the rest, send greeting in the Lord.(1)
True religion and the peace of the Church suffer, we think, in no small
degree, from the absence of your holiness. Had you been on the spot you
might have put a stop to the disturbances which have arisen, and the
violence that has been ventured on, and might have fought on our side for
the subjection of the heresies introduced into the orthodox Faith, and that
doctrine of apostles and evangelists which, handed down from time to time
from father to son, has at length been transmitted to ourselves.
And we do not assert this without ground, for we have learnt the mind
of your holiness from the letter written to the very godly and holy
Julianus, bishop of Sardica, for that letter as is right charged the above
named very godly bishop to fight for the Faith laid down by the blessed
fathers assembled in council at Nicaea, and not to allow any corruption to
be introduced into those invincible definitions which are sufficient at
once to exhibit the truth and to refute falsehood. So your holiness
rightly, justly, and piously advised, and the recipient of the letter
followed your counsel. But many of the members of the council, to use the
word of the prophet, "have gone aside," and have "altogether become
filthy,"(1) for they have abandoned the Faith which they received from the
holy Fathers, and have subscribed the twelve Chapters of Cyril of
Alexandria, which teem with Apollinarian error, are in agreement with the
impiety of Arius and Eunomius, and anathematize all who do not accept their
unconcealed unorthodoxy. To this plague smiting the Church vigorous
resistance has been offered by us who have assembled from the East, and
others from different dioceses, with the object of securing the
ratification of the Faith delivered by the blessed Fathers at Nicaea. For
in it, as your holiness knows, there is nothing lacking whether for the
teaching of evangelic doctrines, or for the refutation of every heresy.
For the sake of this Faith we continue to struggle, despising alike all
the joys and sorrows of mortal life, if only we may preserve untouched this
heritage of our fathers. For this reason we have deposed Cyril and Memnon;
the former as prime mover in the heresy, and the latter as his aider and
abettor in all that has been done to ratify and uphold the Chapters
published to the destruction of the Church. We have also excommunicated all
that have dared to subscribe and support these impious doctrines till they
shall have anathematized them, and returned to the Faith of the Fathers at
Nicaea.
But our long-suffering has done them no good. To this day they continue
to do battle for those pernicious doctrines and have impaled themselves on
the law of the canon which distinctly enacts "If any bishop deposed by a
synod, or presbyter or deacon deposed by his own bishop, shall perform his
sacred office, without waiting for the judgment of a synod, he is to have
no opportunity for defending himself, not even in another synod: but also
all who communicate with him are to be expelled from the church." Now this
law has been broken both by the deposed and the excommunicate. For
immediately after the deposition and the excommunication becoming known to
them, they performed sacred functions, and they continue to do so, in plain
disbelief of Him who said" Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven."(1)
With this we have thought well to acquaint your holiness at once, but
in expectation of some favourable change, we have waited up to the present
time. But we have been disappointed. They have continued to fight for this
impious heresy, and pay no attention to the counsels of the very pious
emperor. On five separate occasions he has met us, and ordered them either
to reject the Chapters of Cyril as contrary to the Faith, or to be willing
to do battle in their behalf, and to shew in what way they are in agreement
with the confession of the Fathers. We have our proofs at hand, whereby we
should have shewn that they are totally opposed to the teaching of
orthodoxy, and for the most part in agreement with heresy.
For in these very Chapters the author of the noxious productions
teaches that the Godhead of the only begotten Son suffered, instead of the
manhood which He assumed for the sake of our salvation, the indwelling
Godhead manifestly appropriating the sufferings as of Its own body, though
suffering nothing in Its own nature; and further that there is made one
nature of both Godhead and manhood,--for so he explains "The Word was made
flesh,"(2) as though the Godhead bad undergone some change, and been turned
into flesh.
And, further, he anathematizes those who make a distinction between the
terms used by apostles and evangelists about the Lord Christ, referring
those of humiliation to the manhood, and those of divine glory to the
Godhead, of the Lord Christ. It is with these views that Arians and
Eunomians, attributing the terms of humiliation to the Godhead, have not
shrunk from declaring God the Word to be made and created, of another
substance, and unlike the Father.
What blasphemy follows on these statements it is not difficult to
perceive. There is introduced a confusion of the natures, and to God the
Word are applied the words "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me;"(3)
and "Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me,"(4) the hunger,
the thirst, and the strengthening by an angel; His saying "Now is my soul
troubled,"(5) and "my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,"(1) and
all similar passages belonging to the manhood of the Christ. Any one may
perceive how these statements correspond with the impiety of Arius and
Eunomius; for they, finding themselves unable to establish the difference
of substance, connect, as has been said, the sufferings, and the terms of
humiliation, with the Godhead of the Christ.
And be your reverence well assured that now in their churches the Arian
teachers preach no other doctrine than that the supporters of the
"homousion" at present hold the same views as Arius, and that, after long
time, the truth has now at last been brought to light.
We on the contrary abide in the teaching, and follow in the pious
footprints, of the blessed Fathers assembled at Nicaea, and of their
illustrious successors, Eustathius of Antioch, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory,
John, Athanasius, Theophilus, Damasus of Rome, and Ambrose of Milan. For
all these, following the words of the apostles, have left us an exact rule
of orthodoxy, which all we of the East earnestly desire to preserve
unmoved. The same is the wish of the Bithynians, the Paphlagonians, of
Cappadocia Secunda, Pisidia, Mysia, Thessaly, and Rhodope, and very many
more of the different provinces. The Italians too, it is evident, will not
endure this new-fangled doctrine; for the very godly and holy Martinus,(2)
bishop of Milan, has written a letter to us, and has sent to the very pious
emperor a work by the blessed Ambrose on the incarnation of the Lord, of
which the teaching is opposed to these heretical Chapters.
And be it known to your holiness that Cyril and Memnon have not been
satisfied with corrupting the orthodox Faith, but have trampled all the
canons underfoot. For they have received into communion men excommunicated
in various provinces and dioceses. Others lying under charges of heresy,
and of the same mind as Celestius and Pelagius, (for they are Euchitae, or
Enthusiasts(3)) and therefore excommunicated by their diocesans and
metropolitans, they have, in defiance of all ecclesiastical discipline
received into communion, so swelling their following from all possible
quarters, and shewing their eagerness to enforce their teaching less by
piety than by violence. For when they had been stripped bare of piety they
devised, in their extremity, another sort of force,--walls of flesh, with
the idea that by their showers of bribery they might vanquish the faith of
the Fathers. But so long as your holiness puts forth your strength, and you
continue to fight, as you are wont, in defence of true religion, none of
these devices will be of the least avail. We exhort you therefore, most
holy sir, to beware of the communion of the unscrupulous introducers of
this heresy; and to make known to all, both far and near, that these are
the points for which the thrice blessed Damasus deposed the heretics Apol-
linarius, Vitalius, and Timotheus; and that the Epistle in which the writer
has concealed his heresy and coloured it with a coating of truth, must not
in simplicity be received. For in the Chapters he has boldly laid bare his
impiety, and dared to anathematize all who disagree with him, while in the
letter he has vilely endeavoured to harm the simpler readers.
Your holiness must therefore beware of neglecting this matter, lest
when, too late, you see this heresy confirmed, you grieve in vain, and
suffer affliction at being no longer able to defend the cause of truth.
We have also sent you a copy of the memorial which we have given to the
most pious and Christ-loving emperor, containing the faith of the holy
Fathers at Nicaea. wherein we have rejected the newly-invented heresies of
Cyril, and adjudged them to be opposed to the orthodox faith.
Since in accordance with the orders of the very pious emperor only
eight of us travelled to Constantinople, we have subjoined the copy of the
order given us by the holy synod, that you may be acquainted with the
provinces contained in it. Your holiness will learn them from the
signatures of the metropolitans. We salute the brotherhood which is with
you.
CLXXI. Letter of Theodoret to John, bishop of Antioch, after the
reconciliation.(1)
God, who governs all things in wisdom, who provides for our unanimity,
and cares for the salvation of His people, has caused us to be assembled
together, and has shewn us that the views of all of us are in agreement
with one another. We have assembled together, and read the Egyptian
Letter;(2) we have carefully examined its purport, and we have discovered
that its contents are quite in accordance with our own statements, and
entirely opposed to the Twelve Chapters, against which up to the present
time we have continued to wage war, as being contrary to true religion.
Their teaching was that God the Word was carnally made flesh; that there
was an union of hypostasis, and that the combination in union was of
nature, and that God the Word was the first-born flora the dead. They
forbade all distinction in the terms used of our Lord, and further
contained other doctrines at variance with the seeds sown by the apostles,
and outcome of heretical tares. The present script, however, is beautified
by apostolic nobility of origin. For in it our Lord Jesus Christ is
exhibited as perfect God and perfect man; it shews two natures, and the
distinction between them; an unconfounded union, made not by mixture and
compounding, but in a manner ineffable and divine, and distinctly
preserving the properties of the natures; the impassibility and immortality
of God the Word; the possibility and temporary surrender to death of the
temple, and its resurrection by the power of the united God; that the holy
Spirit is not of the Son, nor derives existence from the Son, but proceeds
from the Father, and is properly stated to be of the Son, as being of one
substance.[1] Beholding this orthodoxy in the letter, we have hymned Him
who heals our stammering tongues, and changes our discordant noises into
the harmony of sweet music.(2)
CLXXII. Letter of Theodoretus to Nestorius.(3)
To the very reverend and religions lord and very holy Father,
Nestorius, the bishop Theodoretus sends greeting in the Lord. Your holiness
is, I think, well aware that I take no pleasure in cultivated society, nor
in the interests of this life, nor in reputation, nor am I attracted by
other sees. Had I learn, this lesson from no other source, the very
solitude of the city(4) over which I am called to preside would suffice to
teach me this philosophy. It is not indeed distinguished only for solitude,
but also by very many disturbances which may check the activity even of
those who most delight in them.
Let no one therefore persuade your holiness that I have accepted the
Egyptian writings as orthodox, with my eyes shut, because I covet any see.
For really, to speak the truth, after frequently reading and carefully
examining them, I have discovered that they are free from all heretical
taint, and I have hesitated to put any stress upon them, though I certainly
have no love for their author, who was the originator of the disturbances
which have agitated the world. For this I hope to escape punishment in the
day of Judgment, since the just Judge examines motives. But to what has
been done unjustly and illegally against your holiness, not even if one
were to cut off both my hands would I ever assent, God's grace helping me
and supporting my infirmity. This I have stated in writing to those who
require it. I have sent to your holiness my reply to what you wrote to me,
that you may know that, by God's grace, no time has changed me like the
centipedes and chameleons who imitate by their colour the stones and leaves
among which they live. I and all with me salute all the Brotherhood who are
with you in the Lord.
CLXXIII. Letter to Andreas, Monk of Constantinople.(1)
"God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye
are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye
may be able to bear it,"(2) and convicts falsehood,--although now refuted
assertion of the falsehood is approved,--and the power of truth has been
shewn. For, lo, they, who by their impious reasoning had confused the
natures of our Saviour Christ, and dared to preach one nature, and
therefore insulted the most holy and venerable Nestorius, high priest of
God, their mouths held, as the prophet says, with bit and bridle(3) and
turned from wrong to right, have once again learnt the truth, adopting the
statement of him who in the cause of truth has borne the brunt of the
battle. For instead of one nature they now confess two, anathematizing all
who preach mixture and confusion. They adore the impossible Godhead of
Christ; they attribute passion to the flesh; they distinguish between the
terms of the Gospels, ascribing the lofty and divine to the Godhead, and
the lowly to the manhood. Such are the writings now brought from Egypt.
CLXXIV. To Himerius, bishop of Nicomedia.(1)
We wish to acquaint your holiness that on reading and frequently
discussing the letter brought from Egypt we find it in harmony with the
doctrine of the Church. Of the twelve Chapters we have proved the contrary,
and up to the present time we continue to oppose them. We have therefore
determined, if your holiness has recovered the churches divinely entrusted
to you, that you ought to communicate with the Egyptians and
Constantinopolitans and others who have fought with them against us,
because they have professed to hold our faith, or I should rather say the
faith of the apostles; but not to give your consent to the alleged
condemnation of the very holy and venerable Nestorius. For we hold it
impious and unjust in the case of charges in which both appeared as
defendants to lavish favour on the one and shut the door of repentance on
the other. Far more unjust and impious is it to condemn an innocent man to
death. Your holiness should be assured that you ought not to communicate
with them before you have recovered your churches. For this not only I but
all the holy bishops of our district decreed in the recent Council.
CLXXV. To Alexander of Hierapolis.(2)
I have already informed your holiness that if the doctrine of the very
holy and venerable bishop, my lord Nestorius, is condemned, I will not
communicate with those who do so. If it shall please your holiness to
insert this in the letter which is being sent to Antioch so be it. Let
there then, I beseech you, be no delay!
CLXXVI. Letter to the same Alexander after he had learnt that John, bishop
of Antioch, had anathematized the doctrine of Nestorius.(3)
Be it known to your holiness that when read the letter addressed to the
emperor I was much distressed, because I know perfectly well that the
writer of the letter, being of the same opinions, has unwisely and
impiously condemned one who has never held or taught anything contrary to
sound doctrine. But the form of anathema, though it be more likely than his
assent to the condemnation, to grieve a reader, nevertheless has given me
some ground of comfort, in that it is laid down not in wide general terms,
but with some qualification. For he has not said "We anathematize his
doctrine" but 'whatever he has either said or held other than is warranted
by the doctrine of the apostles."
CLXXVII. Letter to Andreas, bishop of Samosata.(1)
The illustrious Aristolaus has sent Magisterianus from Egypt with a
letter of Cyril in which he anathematizes Arius, Eunomius Apollinarius and
all who assert Christ's Godhead to be passible and maintain the confusion
and commixture of the two natures. Hereat we rejoice, although he did
withhold his consent from our statement. He requires further subscription
to the condemnation which has been passed, and that the doctrine of the
holy bishop Nestorius be anathematized. Your holiness well knows that if
any one anathematizes, without distinction, the doctrine of that most holy
and venerable bishop, it is just the same as though he seemed to
anathematize true religion.
We must then if we are compelled anathematize those who call Christ
mere man, or who divide our one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons and deny
His divinity, etc.
CLXXVIII. Letter to Alexander of Hierapolis.(2)
I think that more than all the very holy and venerable bishop, my lord
John, must have been gratified at my refusing either to give my consent to
the condemnation of the very holy and venerable bishop Nestorius or to
violate the pledges made at Tarsus, Chalcedon and Ephesus.(3)
He remembers also what was frequently received from us at Antioch after
our departure.
Let no one therefore deceive your holiness into the belief that I
should ever do this, for God is without doubt on my side and strengthening
me.
CLXXIX. Letter of Cyril to John, bishop of Antioch, against Theodoret.(1)
CLXXX. Letter of Theodoretus, as some suppose, to Domnus, bishop of
Antioch, written on the death of Cyril, bishop of Alexandria.(2)
At last and with difficulty the villain has gone. The good and the
gentle pass away all too soon; the bad prolong their life for years.
The Giver of all good, methinks, removes the former before their time
from the troubles of humanity; He frees them like victors from their
contests and transports them to the better life, that life which, free from
death, sorrow and care, is the prize of them that contend for virtue. They,
on the other hand, who love and practise wickedness are allowed a little
longer to enjoy this present life, either that sated with evil they may
afterwards learn virtue's lessons, or else even in this life may pay the
penalty for the wickedness of their own ways by being tossed to and fro
through many years of this life's sad and wicked waves.
This wretch, however, has not been dismissed by the ruler of our souls
like other men, that he may possess for longer time the things which seem
to be full of joy. Knowing that the fellow's malice has been daily growing
and doing harm to the body of the Church, the Lord has lopped him off like
a plague and "taken away the reproach from Israel."(1) His survivors are
indeed delighted at his departure. The dead, maybe, are sorry. There is
some ground of alarm lest they should be so much annoyed at his company as
to send him back to us, or that he should run away from his conductors like
the tyrant of Cyniscus in Lucian.(2)
Great care must then be taken, and it is especially your holiness's
business to undertake this duty, to tell the guild of undertakers to lay a
very big and heavy stone upon his grave, for fear he should come back
again, and show his changeable mind once more. Let him take his new
doctrines to the shades below, and preach to them all day and all night. We
are not at all afraid of his dividing them by making public addresses
against true religion and by investing an immortal nature with death. He
will be stoned not only by ghosts learned in divine law, but also by
Nimrod, Pharaoh and Sennacherib, or any other of God's enemies.
But I am wasting words. The poor fellow is silent whether he will or
no, "his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day
his thoughts perish."(3) He is doomed too to silence of another kind. His
deeds, detected, tie his tongue, gag his mouth, curb his passion, strike
him dumb and make him bow down to the ground.
I really am sorry for the poor fellow. Truly the news of his death has
not caused me unmixed delight, but it is tempered by sadness. On seeing the
Church freed from a plague of this kind I am glad and rejoice; but I am
sorry and do mourn when I think that the wretch knew no rest from his
crimes, but went on attempting greater and more grievous ones till he died.
His idea was, so it is said, to throw the imperial city into confusion by
attacking true doctrines a second time, and to charge your holiness with
supporting them. But God saw and did not overlook it. "He put his hook into
his nose and his bridle into his lips,"(1) and turned him to the earth
whence he was taken. Be it then granted to your holiness's prayers that he
may obtain mercy and pity and that God's boundless clemency may surpass his
wickedness. I beg your holiness to drive away the agitations of my soul.
Many different reports are being bruited abroad to my alarm announcing
general misfortunes. It is even said by some that your reverence is setting
out against your will for the court, but so far I have despised these
reports as untrue. But finding every one repeating one and the same story I
have thought it right to try and learn the truth from your holiness that I
may laugh at these tales if false, or sorrow not without reason if they are
true.
CLXXXI. Letter to Abundius, bishop of Como.(2)
To my dear lord and very holy brother Abundius Theodoretus sends
greeting in the Lord. I have discovered that your piety religiously
preserves the true and apostolic faith; and I have thanked Almighty God
that the truth which was in peril has been renewed and brought to light by
your holiness.
Of old, after the flood, it came to pass that Noah and his sons were
left for seed of the human race. Just so in our own day are reserved the
fathers of the West, that by them the holy churches of the East may be able
to preserve that true religion which has been threatened with devastation
and destruction by a new and impious heresy. Well may we quote those words
of the prophet "Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small
remnant we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto
Gomorrah."(3) So upon us from this impious heresy the wrath of God has
fallen like a flood and invasion.
Now we acknowledge the presence of our Saviour in a human body, and one
Son of God, His perfect Godhead and His perfect manhood. We do not divide
our one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons for He is one; but we recognise the
distinction between God and man; we know that one is of the Father, the
other of the seed of David and Abraham, according to the divine Scriptures,
and that the divine nature is free from passion, the body which was before
subject to passion being now itself too free from passion; for after the
resurrection it is plainly delivered from all passion.
This we have learnt from the letter of the very holy and religious
Archbishop our lord Leo. For we have read what he wrote to Flavianus, of
holy and blessed memory, and have thanked the loving-kindness of the Lord
because we have found an advocate and defender of the truth. To this letter
I have given my adhesion, and have subjoined a copy of it to my present
epistle, which I have also subscribed and have thereby proved that I obey
the apostolic rules, that is true doctrines; that I abide in them to this
day, and am suffering in their cause.
Assent has also been given by my lord Ibas and my lord Aquilinus
against whom the inventors of the new heresy have armed the imperial power.
It remains for you with your very holy colleagues to bring aid to the
sacred Church, and to drive away the war that threatens it. Banish the
impious party which has been roused against the truth; give back the
churches their ancient peace; so will you receive from the Lord, Who has
promised to grant this boon, the fruits of your apostolic labours.
All the very religious and godly presbyters and reverend deacons and
brethren by your holiness I greet; and I and all who are with me salute
your reverence.(1)
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF II/III, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The
Electronic
Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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